Harrold Gryffindor
by princeofuntouchables
Summary: Harry leaves his world as the master of death for the next great adventure. He is going to enjoy his new life. Eventual Harry/Jon. Slash. Don't like ?. Don't read.
1. Chapter 1

At the end it was not really a difficult decision. After little over a century of living, there was nothing much new to explore. Even though I came to accept the title of 'master of death' and everything else comes with it, it still is a curse. I saw most of my friends passing and I remained. I was never able to have a long term relationship because of my forever young image. Decades later I invented to mimic natural aging but then I had given up relationships.

Magic was dying. There were few and fewer magical births every year. Many magical creatures became extinct. There are no unicorns now. No new house elf was born in the past 50 years. Magical levels of witches and wizards have become so low that no one can cast a patronas now. So when death offered me a new adventure in a new world, I didn't have any reason not to accept. Death told me that I cannot take anything with me except for the hallows, which is actually part of me now; literally. All three items were absorbed to my body. I can become invisible just by thinking of it and need no wand to cast spells. As for the resurrection stone, I never tried to use that again.

With my permission and without any ceremony death took me from my old world and dropped me somewhere. It was much worse than a portkey. Once I got my senses back, I realized that I am middle of nowhere. I extended my senses outwards but found no human nearby. So I walked towards a hill hoping to get a better view of the lands.

Couple of hours later I heard human voices. I had no idea what they were talking as I didn't know their language. There were a group of men with horses camping and sharing a meal. I activated my invisibility cloak and got closer to them. It was clear that one of these men was the leader regardless his young age. Well he is a child actually. From what I could see, I realized the culture is primitive compared to my old world especially if they use swords as a weapon.

I got closer to the leader and used legilimency to get a better understanding of the language and the lands of this world. After a century I am a grand master of mind arts. I copied his memory to mine and absorbed the knowledge. That was a neat trick taught to me by a Tibetan monk as a thank you for saving his life.

It proved my initial guess that the world is primitive. They are similar to middle age of my old world in many ways but in many ways it is more primitive than that. To my shock, they have been in this middle ages for thousands of years. I am in a continent called Westeros and a region called Vale, one of the seven regions. These were once separate kingdoms and now ruled under one king.

The young man is the heir to the biggest region called North. His name is Brandon and he is travelling from Eirie where his brother is fostered to Winterfell, his castle. Young Brandon is 15 years old.

A loud voice snapped me out of meditation. I saw a band of thieves attacking the Northerners. It was soon evident that these thieves outnumbered them and will be defeated regardless of their superior skills. Even after 100 years I still couldn't really get over my saving people thing. So I conjured a sword and ran to the battle. The thieves were startled with my sudden appearance which gave me and Northerners a brief advantage to push for attack. We fought for like an hour which was in reality about ten minutes. Everyone in the northern group fell protecting the young heir, but not without killing or disabling many of the thieves. At the end it was Brandon, I and three thieves left standing. I formed a temporary mental connection between Brandon and myself and fought them like a well-oiled machine. We managed to kill every thief but Brandon was injured seriously and soon lost consciousness.

I couldn't heal the cuts as I will not be able to explain them. I however stopped the bleedings and wrap them with clothes torn from the fallen. Leaving the wounded there temporary I explored the surrounding area to find some herbs for medicine. Thankfully I could find some plants that could be used and made a simple salve for his wounds.

More than half of Brandon's companions were dead. Remaining was injured. They will need medical treatment soon or they will die. They cannot travel anywhere in their condition n or wait till help arrive. I had no choice but to use magic. I carefully treated the most of dire injuries with magic and altered their memories carefully so that they will think they were not injured seriously.

Thankfully Brandon woke up right after I've done healing the rest.

"Easy there. You took a hit to head. Don't move." I told Brandon who tried to get up.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Harold. What's your name?" I pretended like I do not know him.

"I am Brandon. What happened?" he asked.

"Well I arrived to see your group being attacked by these thieves so I jumped in to help."

"Why? Where did you come from ?"

"Where I come from is a long story. As for why, how could I not help? What's important now is to get help. I am a good healer but I don't have any medicine with me. I treated you all as best as I can but we need proper care before long."

"There should be a village about couple of hour's ride." One of the soldiers told me who was listening to me.

"Well it will be difficult but I guess it is possible to reach it before the night fall."

I gathered from their talks that we are in the foothill of the mountains of the moon and that the attackers were not thieves but mountain clans. The closest village is called Palisade and further south is the crossroad inn. They decided to travel to the village for now and send a messenger to the crossroad inn to get carriages. The plan is to rest at the inn and get treatments.

Brandon questioned me about myself. Thankfully I had enough time to cook up a story.

"My name is Harold Gryffindor lord Stark. My family is originally from North. Thousands years ago my ancestor left with his lord father's permission to explore the world. He travelled to Essos and never came back. My family has been explorers and merchants last thousands of years. The family stayed here in north perished long time back. My father's dream was to come back to our roots and settle there. But he passed away before he can. We grew in numbers over the last thousands of years but many perished because of the adventurous life we live. I am the head of the Gryffindor clan that includes many cadet branches. So I decided to come to our ancestral lands and test the waters. I was on my way to my family's castle. I wanted to see it even if it is in ruins."

"What's your family castle?" Brandon asked.

"Moat Cailin." I answered.

That gave him a pause.

"Your ancestors were the lords of Moat Cailin?" he asked once he got out of shock.

"Yes my lord." I added a little compulsion for him to trust me.

"My ancestors were marsh kings. My own ancestor left couple of years before it was conquered by your ancestor the laughing wolf."

I was very thankful for the knowledge I gained from Brandon so that I could waive the story. I realized moat Cailin is the most strategically placed castle in the north. It guards the causeway to north. No army can march without conquering the castle. I pretended to be from the family held the castle thousands years ago. I hope I will be able to request the castle and the lands from Brandon's father. I was not delusional to think that just by requesting I am going to get it. But with my magic I will be able to get the warden of north pretty much anything he demands.

We spent several days at the crossroad inn recovering. Brandon happily paid for my expenses. I told him that I was robbed of my money and horse before I met them. Once the healer gave the Ok to travel we departed to Winterfell, this time with a large force for protection that Brandon hired.

We reached Winterfell with no more obstacles on our way. Lord Rickard, father of Brandon welcomed me warmly once Brandon explained that I saved his life.

Winterfell is from a distance a beautiful and imposing castle. But once you see it closer, you can see it has passed its glory days. Some parts if the castle is in ruin. Court yards are not paves and muddy. The place need some serious renovations.

"I was hoping to rebuild my family back in north where we originated my lord." I told lord Rickard.

We were discussing my origins in north and he was curious to why I am here now. Lord Rickard invited me to sit with them at the dinner. As I understood it is a not something anyone will have the chance to. It is either family or nobles get to sit with the main table.

"Moat Cailin is in ruins. I want to rebuild it with your permission my lord. I am aware that it is not mine and I lay no claim to it or the lands. But I was hoping that you will grant me the castle and lands belonged to it. In return I can give you almost anything you want. Over last thousand years we have collected treasures both monetary and otherwise."

"That's is a very daring thing to say Harold; to offer to get me anything I want." Lord Rickard said after a moment's silence.

"I said almost anything my lord. I can't bring the dead back to life or give you a dragon. But I might be able to bring back someone at the brink of death or get you dragon bones."

I took the chance to peak into lord Rickard's head and see what he might wish. Like many men money is one of the things he desired. He is concerned about his two young sons. They will be left with almost nothing as the lordship will be given to his eldest son. North is vast but it seems to be the poorest of all kingdoms excluding iron islands.

"May I offer something my lord ?" I asked as lord Rickard is still silent. He nodded.

"You have two younger sons. Their future is not as clear as Lord Brandon. You can give them lands as it is not rare in the north. When the time comes for them to rule a keep of their own, I will give them million dragons each to build their own keep and to start their own town. In addition I will give one million dragons now to you."

Now that shocked them. North is a harsh place. As honorable as they might be, the richest they are not. That much money is something they can't even dream.

"Two million dragons now." Lord Rickard counter offered. "Even in ruins the castle you ask is very important to north and we have no proof of your ancestry."

"Two million dragons now if you can give me lands east of the castle until it meet the sea as well permission to build a port at the tip of Fever River." I gave my offer.

"If you are expecting that much of land it will have to be at least 5 million." Said lord Rickard. "No Lord in north own that much land."

"Agreed if I can pay half of it upfront and the rest within next 10 years, 250,000 dragons each year."

"Agreed." Lord Rickard agreed finally.


	2. Chapter 2

AN – If you recognize anything in this story, I do not own them.

 ** _Year of 273 AC_**

One thing I learned in my long life is that money trumps everything. Now I hope I will be able to gather that much of money. Lord Rickard and I discussed about the deal in detail and signed an agreement. I told them that it will take at least a year, probably two for me to arrange everything and bid them good bye to travel to Essos to try my luck.

Lord Rickard had me escorted to White harbor from where I found a ship that travels to Bravos. It is the place to go if you want a ship build fast I've heard. The ships of the age are really primitive. They remind me of ships of 12-13 centuries of my old world. At one point ships were my hobby and I've learned all I can about ships both ancient and modern. I can easily design a far superior fully rigged ship.

Since I have no money, I came to a deal with the iron bank of Bravos. I will sell them the designs of my new type of ship, I will teach them how to build it, supervise the build of first ship. For this they will give me the first ship they build for free and 2 more ships each for next two years. They will also give me additional 100,000 dragons. The bank identified that this is going to be far more profitable venture for them than me in the long run. I have told them that my ship can travel twice faster than any ship they have. If my ship cannot achieve the target, the deal is off. In reality, the ship should be able to travel 3-4 times faster than their ships.

Bravos is a wonderful place which reminded me of Venice with its hundreds islands and canals. It is also rich in culture. I copied knowledge of many languages and skills. I used my magic to steal from the crime lords of the city. I didn't feel bad as they don't deserve any of it.

I've learned that some people of this world are magical. They are not magical enough to wield a wand. They are essentially squibs. I was elated to find it. That means I don't have to be alone. I can find more magicals for my staff.

I needed a fool proof method to ensure their loyalty. Magical auths are out as they can't use a wand. The only other way is a magical contract. The advantage is that even muggles can sign a magical contract as they have a little magic in themselves. As much as I loathe it, I had to create a blood quill to sign the contract. I created an ironclad contract for any of my staff to sign. Over the six months I stayed in bravos, I found over 200 men, women and children who signed the contract. About 50 of them were sailors. I was in need of them to travel in my ship.

The first ship was built in 6 months after my arrival. It took this much time as it is the first attempt. I estimate that in the future it would take them maybe a month per ship using same number of workers. The ship is 4 masts fully rigged 150 feet long ship. I was very proud of the finished ship. It proved that it can travel more than twice faster than any ship. Once I add my own magical alterations, it will be amazingly even faster than this.

I sailed in my new ship to Far East. It was named Hedwig in the memory of my familiar who died saving me. My destination was Qarth which was said to be the richest city in the known world. I took almost all my sailors with me. I left 5 to search for more magical sailors as I will have 4 more ships within next 2 years. As they can't sense magicals, I gave a charmed bracelet that will warm up if a magical person is near. Although sailors are a priority, I told them to look for others who will be useful such as different craftsmen, ship builders, masons, and blacksmiths and so on.

On our way to Qarth, we stopped over at all the ports. This is because once I visit a place; I can always apparate there again. At each city I gained more knowledge from people and stole from rich, greedy merchants and crime lords.

One of the places I wanted to visit was the old Valyria. No one even dare to sail near that place. The reason is it is full of toxic gases. No one can come back alive. Thankfully I have the bubble head charm. It took me a lot to convince my sailors to ail to the smoking sea. Once we are near, I cast a bubble head charm and apparated to main land. The air is toxic enough not even the plants grow.

Once there, I used my magical senses to get an idea of the land. The ruins go many miles north and south of the smoking sea. I tried to sense what buried in my immediate vicinity. I carefully excavated the site and recovered valyrian steel weapons. As my luck would have it, I found an armory full of weapons. I kept digging and found valyrian steel worth millions of dragons; that is if you can actually put a price on these priceless weapons. With the initial success, I spent close to a month digging and found many treasures.

We sailed to a small island north of valyrian peninsula and set temporary camp there while I was digging. I used the time to add more magical protections and alterations to the ship. One of the first things I did was to ward the ship. I have made the ship a lot stronger. Strong enough that even a cannon blast if existed will not be able to put a dent in the ship. I also added intent based ward that no one who want to harm the ship or steal the ship or it's cargo can board it. Finally I added a notice me not ward that can be activate or deactivate as needed. I have also made the ship lighter to increase the speed and made the ship stable so that travelling in stormy sea will not be a problem. And finally I used space extension to the maximum. The ship can hold 10 times more than its cargo holds.

After a month I stopped digging to continue to further East. Besides I can always come back if I want to. Our next stop was Astapor. I wanted to hire some soldiers and the best are unsullied. They are slaves so I will have to buy them. But I have every intention to free them and offer employment.

Once we reached the city, I met with the slave masters and convince them to allow me to choose who I want. I selected magicals available. After inspecting about a thousand, I found just short of 200 magicals. That is 20% of the total. I guessed that magicals even if its passive have a better chance of survival in their harsh trainings. Now with a good number of guards, we sailed to Qarth.

Qarth deserve the title of queen of cities. Considering the level of development in this world, it is as impressive as it can be. And as expected it brims with wealth. I had no shame in robbing the greedy, ruthless merchants of the city.

Now that I have more than enough wealth, I sailed to bravos. I sold my cargo in bravos for a lot of profit. Very few ships travel from bravos to Qarth due to distance. This allowed me to offer Bravos's merchants goods from Far East.

 ** _Year 275 AC_**

Once my business is done in bravos, I sailed to white harbor with my new army. Long gone were the signature unsullied looks. They still prefer leather armor and spears but they now have better versions of them. I plan to teach them how to make the leather armor stronger than steel by using runes. The finished product will stop a steel sword but will be as flexible as normal leather. I needed them not to look like their former selves as slaves will not be welcomes in westeros regardless how much money I might throw. It was an impressive procession that reached Winterfell. 200 armed men are a threatening sign for any town. But it was expected as I am travelling with a lot of gold.

While I was away I had time to think of little details such as a flag and a motto. I was torn between phoenix and griffin to use in the flag. At the end I decided to use the griffin as it is part of the family name I chose. I deigned a flag where a fierce golden griffin stand on its rear legs on a black background. The end product was more beautiful than I imagined. As for the motto, I used the same old Potter family motto _Sola nobilitas virtus_ , virtue is the only nobility. My little army carried the banners of my new flag.

Lords Rickard and Brandon welcomed me warmly.

"I apologize for the show of muscle my lord but I had to protect what I am bringing." I told lord Rickard apologizing of the small army.

"That is understandable Harold. Or we should call you lord Gryffindor now I guess." He said jokingly.

"I have the promised amount of dragons with me my lord and additionally I have another two gifts for lords Eddard and Benjen. I managed to acquire 2 swords." I said offering him two valyrian steel swords I found.

Both lord Rickard and Brandon were speechless.

I later suggested a grand feast in a month or two inviting all the lords of north. I have to meet them and their acceptance is as important as Starks'. Lord Rickard agreed and sent ravens to every important keep summoning them for the feast. Lord Rickard insisted that I don't pay for the feast as I suggested.

With a feast planned and as the official lord of moat Cailin, I sailed back to bravos leaving ¾ of army at moat Cailin. The ship yards of Bravos had built more than a few Hedwig class ships. I received one of them as part of my promised 4 ships. The next one will be in another 6 months. The magicals I left in bravos had scouted for many more magicals. Most of these were poor people and orphan children. They were glad to leave with promise of a better life.

I arrived at Moat Cailin with two ships and little more than 800 people.

The 150 of unsullied who I named Spartans, had cleared and cleaned most of moat Cailin existing towers. It is still a dump though. The castle used to have 20 towers I was told but now only 3 remain standing; barely. We settled the women and children at the cleaned towers and made temporary shelters for the rest.

 **AN - at the beginning of the story where Harry meets Brandon, Harry is 18 years old. Brandon is 15 and Ned is 10.**


	3. Chapter 3

AN – I don't own anything.

It was almost time for the grand feast. So I let my people remain there for the moment and went to Winterfell with 15 of my Spartans. I carried with me gift for all the lords and ladies that will attend.

Winterfell castle has gone through a great transformation within last 2 months. With the new wealth of the Starks, they have repaired many parts of the castle. The court yards were paved. The walls looked like someone cast a powerful Scourgify charm on them. The banners were bright and many. The great hall looked amazing. It had no gloomy look like before. The hall was bright and decorated with many banners and paintings that were not there before. Old furniture were gone and replaced by new.

It was a grand feast like never before for the north. Eventhough Rickard refused my help, I still sent some things for the feast. That includes best wine from Dorne and Abor as well as spices and herbs as far as away from Yi Ti. I have also sent many types of preserved meat and fish.

In front of all the lords, Rickard proclaimed my lordship and grant me the castle of Moat Cailin. I in return swore fealty to the Starks of Winterfell.

I gave each lord a valyrian dagger and for ladies I gifted the best fabric from Yi Ti. I had something for each and every son and daughter that came with their lord father. The meetings, feasts and hunting parties lasted for couple of days.

House Reed and House Manderly needed little more. Those two occupy the lands surrounding what I own. The lands given to me unofficially considered their own although it was never officially given to them. The land I occupy now never been used as settlements or farmlands by any of them. They have no grounds to complain but they are disgruntled. I already have a huge gift to Lord Manderly. I put an order for a 50 feet long smaller version of the Hedwig class ship at bravos. I can pick it up in a month.

I met lord Manderly privately and offered him the ship and he gladly accepted. His mood was joyful after that. House Reed is another matter altogether. They live isolated and piss poor lives. They are considered savages by the southerners. They are also fiercely loyal to the Starks.

"Lord Reed. I am glad I get the chance to meet you away from all the feasts and formality." I said to the lord Reed when I got him alone for a moment the day after the feast.

"What can I do for you lord Gryffindor?" he asked. Polite but kind of cold voice.

"Harold please. I am aware I was given lands that unofficially considered yours. I apologize."

"There is nothing to apologize. Like you said the lands were not ours in the first place."

"That maybe. But I would like to be on friendlier terms as we are neighbors. I know I am considered an outsider by you but I hope in time you and all the other lords as well as small folks consider me a northern man. I could have gone anywhere. I could get land anywhere in south. But I came here. Because my ancestor was the son of a marsh king. That has to account for something."

"We Crannogmen have lived in these marshes for thousands of years without any interference. Suddenly there are strangers. We are concerned how much this is going to change." He said after few moments.

"We will not interfere with your lives Lord Reed. We will not go anywhere south of moat Cailin. I plan to build a harbor and a port on the fever river. That's all our reach into the marsh. We won't go anywhere else. I hope a harbor and the port will be beneficial to you and your men. I was hoping we can build a small town there together."

"I admit when you reveled that plan at the feast I was intrigued. I can see how that would benefit the whole north if it is built."

"There is one more thing. I know whatever lands you have are muddy and no crop can be grown. But I know something that can be grown there. It is a crop called rice that is grown in Yi Ti. They make the land muddy by flooding to grow them. Here you and to a smaller scale I have what needed without trying."

"I've never heard of this rice." Reed said now very interested.

"Its because no one west of jade gate really was interested before. Now I can't be 100% sure if it works out. We will have to test. But if it works, we will never have to worry about food when the winter comes."

"How so ?"

"Rice is a type of grain that never gets spoiled. If you can store them in a dry place, you can keep it forever. When you want to eat, you have to boil it just right. You eat it with vegetable or meat."

"That is very interesting Harold. For both the port and your rice farming, you have my support. Let me know how we can help." He said finally.

Overall the feast was a huge success. I got to meet all the VIP in north and cultivated friendships. Once all the festivities done I came back to my own castle. Lord Reed and I shared the journey until Moat Cailin.

I decided not to do any reconstruction on the castle for the moment. It stood as it is for thousands of years and it can wait a little bit more. I did however fix the three towers with magic and cleaned it up. It is as good as it can get for the moment.

My people were already at work. The area for the town is cleared. With my help we fell trees and the wood workers started making furniture and other basic necessities. Black smiths, carpenters and many more have started and are hard at work. There is couple of slave glass workers I stole from Myr who is setting up a glass workshop. I am going to teach them how to improve the glass work and how to make perfect clear glass sheets. My people unlike many in westeros are going to have glass windows.

Another important craft is making bricks. I have asked blacksmiths to make molds to make uniform and better bricks. I taught them how to salt glaze the bricks to look better. This way they will look beautiful even without plaster. A large kiln was built to burn the clay bricks.

The good thing is that everyone is pitching. Even the small kids when they are not in school. I made it mandatory for all kids between 5 -12 years of age to learn reading, writing and basic mathematics. I have found few men to teach them. Anyone older can attend night classes. One of the towers is used for the school for now.

Planning the town was difficult. I had no experience in town planning. So I had to go with what I think is best. Moat Cailin castle was built on the swamp. So the town was planned about a kilometer north of the castle. I plan to use the king's road as the backbone of the road network. The town will grow along it. The town doesn't have a lot of space to grow towards the west side as it is again meeting the swamp. Hence the town has to grow towards east.

My first task in town planning was to mark a road network. From the town a road will be built towards White Harbor. Once that is done, I marked space for public buildings such as a school, hospital, town center and so on. Then, I mapped a sewage system. My plan is to dig some big holes around the city where all sewage goes. The pits will be magic'ed to make sewage disappear.

The houses built are pretty much basic. They all are two story houses with a basement. The basement walls are stone and the other walls are clay bricks. The roofing was also done by clay roof tiles. The ground floor has all the common areas and the upper floor has sleeping chambers. Each house has its own water sprout. It was easy to do. All you have to do is to dig a 3x3x3 feet pit and place a runestone scribed and powered with a aquamenti charm. I taught some young girls how to make them. Passive magicals can use and activate low power runes thankfully.

Many didn't want a house in the town itself. These were the people who wanted to farm. Farm lands were marked about a kilometer east of the town center. I was hoping to grow some fruit, grain and vegetable. I hope that my farmers will grow to sell; not to self-consume. I plan to create additional consumer goods using agricultural products like, whiskey, rum, and jam and so on. Many things I want to grow are from Far East. I just hope they will grow well here.

The small ship I ordered for lord Manderly was done and I sent it to Yi Ti to bring as much as paddy possible to grow rice. I asked my people to get different types of paddy. They were also instructed to bring seeds, cuts and plants of vegetable, grain and fruit they can find. In the meantime, crannongmen and some of my people prepared paddy fields.

I sent one of the Hedwig class ship on a trade mission to Qarth. Now we know what can be sold for high profit, I ordered my team to go all out. With the space expansion, it will be like sending 10 ships. I have ordered 5 more Hedwig class ships a well as a smaller Hedwig class ship for myself. The smaller ships will be named kingfisher class. The kingfisher class ship will have a crew of 15 sailors. It will be assigned 20 Spartans for protection. I plan to get 10 archers as well. Kingfisher will be my personal ship. It is not built for trade but can be used for it if needed. Hedwig class will be assigned 30 sailors, 20 merchants and 50 Spartans. That means I will need more sailors and Spartans. I am not planning to order more ships. I am hoping in a year or two, I will have enough people collected to have my own ship yard.


	4. Chapter 4

AN – I don't own anything.

As things are progressing nicely, I was ready for next step of my grand plan. I was aware that I can't do everything myself on my own. And there is no one I can absolutely trust to delegate some sensitive tasks. And even if I did, I didn't want to reveal the full capability of my magic.

In my old world, in japan I have come across a secret one of the magical families has been keeping for centuries. I wasn't looking for it. I just wanted to learn Japanese by copying his knowledge but I got more than I expected. The family has developed a method to create a clone of them. They are perfect copies of the one being cloned. It creates a copy who can act independent of the creator. But the primary control is kept with the one the clone made of. The clone can never harm or betray the creator. They can be made copies of any age. That means I can create a clone of me 10 year old or 70 years old.

I have of course tried and it worked perfectly. The clone was a perfect copy. The clone had all my memories, knowledge, skills. However clones are not as powerful as me. They are not weak by any means but it's nowhere near my power levels. They do not possess my immortality either as I have found the hard way. And they age like normal people.

The ritual needs more than few drops of my blood. I have been collecting blood over time little by little for this. Normally this will not really work well as a clone would look exactly the same as the master copy. But thankfully I am a metamorphmagus which I found out when the soul leech was removed from me. I have been able to change my hair length since my early childhood. Once the horcrux was gone, I could do much more. Andromeda Tonks helped me to control the ability. My god son Teddy was one as well. For his sake I invented a way to tie a metamorphmagus form into jewelry so that he wouldn't change depend on his emotions.

One full moon I performed the ritual and made 10 clones.

First two will take forms of Chris and Liam Hemsworth. Chris will be the Master-at-arms of Moat Cailin and Liam will be the captain of household guard. They are aged at 20 and 18 respectively. I will introduce them as my cousins and will be names Chris and Liam Gryffindor. Chris will be a leader of the infantry and cavalry. Liam, Chris's second in command is the leader of my personal guard and the guards of the castle. Liam will be the acting Master-at-arms for the moment as I have another task for Chris. He will travel the Essos and sign sellswords for the army. He is as good as me in mind arts. So he can scan and find suitable candidates. He can also bind them in magical contracts. My idea is to have a permanent army of 1500 men. It will consist of 1000 infantry, 200 cavalry and 300 archers. They will be given a monthly salary with accommodation, food, armor and weapons. They will also work as the city guard and Ship guards on a rotation basis. To cover costs, they will provide protection details for anyone who can pay.

Another clone will take the form of Jeremy Renner, the Hawkeye. He will be introduced as another cousin with the name of the man he looks like. His task is to travel to summer islands and recruit 300 archers and map the islands. There is nothing much known about the summer islands and the southern part of it is not in any map I could find. They are famous for the archers. My plan is to get 10 archers stationed at each ship. Like the infantry, they will work on ships on rotation.

Next two will wear the faces and bodies of Kellan Lutz and Taylor Lautner. They will be the commanders of the two Navy fleets once I have them.

The other 5 will be distributed to Bravos, Pentos, Myr, Volantis and Qohor. They will respectively take the forms of Ian Somarhalder, Stephan Amell, Matt Bomer, Channing Tatum and Robert Pattinson. Their task is to establish a base in each city and act as the chief merchant for their city. They will also actively search for talented men and women to recruit.

 ** _5 years later… Year of 280 AC_**

Moat Cailin is now the second biggest city in the north, only second to white harbor. The city has about 20,000 residents. It now has better houses than the initial brick houses. Anyone in my employee is well paid. It allowed them to either improve the brick houses or purchase land and build a better house somewhere else. The city grew around the public square I planned. It has a City hall with reception hall downstairs and administrative offices upstairs.

Another clone of mine resembles Grant Gustin was appointed as the city administrator. He was introduced as my youngest brother. He was given the same eyes as me and messy black hair. Another younger brother was introduced with the face of Lucas Till with messy black hair and green eyes. He was sent to travel all over the world to copy medical knowledge. He returned a year back and made the Chief of healers. Lucas Gryffindor is now writing books on his immense knowledge of medicine and healing as well as teaching the next generation of healers. The only Female Gryffindor was made to resemble my mother with red hair and green eyes who was named Lily. She was made the Dean of our school; Oxford.

Lily married a nephew of Lord Manderly and the couple is living in Oxford. When the student number increased we had to build a new school. Taking the opportunity to move the school, I built a new set of building allowing future expansions easily. From age 7-12, education is free and mandatory. From then, it is a paid service. Many good and well-paid jobs in the city required 4 more years of study.

Two more settlements were built. One was at the beginning of the fever river about 40 kms west of Moat Cailin. It was a joint project with house Reed. We expanded the river to create a harbor and built a port there. Only trade cogs and smaller ships like Kingfisher class can use it. The new port was named Marsh Port and the settlement has about 1,000 permanent residents. A proper wide road was created from Marsh Port to Moat Cailin,

The second new settlement is on the eastern shore south of white harbor and about 200 km east of Moat Cailin. I had to be careful with this as another harbor will be an insult to lord Manderly. At the end the settlement was a fishing village and the harbor was used only for fishing boats and as a harbor for my battle ships. All trade vessels still use white harbor. This settlement was named Plymouth.

Both Plymouth and Marsh Port are the bases of western and eastern fleets. Both fleets have 5 ships each built specially for warfare.

We have built our own ship yard 3 years ago. I have designed and the ship yard built the two types of war ships. The first was the flag ship of each fleet named Neptune and Poseidon after the Greek and roman sea gods. The ships are 150 feet long. It has a permanent crew of 50 sailors, 50 Spartans and 20 archers. If needed the ship can carry 3 times its crew for battle. The second 50 feet escort class was names Ares after the Greek war god. The ship has permanent crew of 15 sailors and 20 Spartans as well as 10 archers. The archers and Spartans works on rotation with the hope to give everyone experience in both sea and land. Same way, sailors work on both trade ships and war ships.

Western fleet protects our trade ships that serve the ports from Marsh port to Sunspear to summer islands. They are also our shield from ironborns. After the first couple of encounters, they learned not to come near a ship bear the Moat Cailin flag.

Eastern fleet is stretched too thin for the moment due to pirates in the Stepstones and the slavers in the summer sea. I am in the process of doubling the numbers.

Both Flagship class and Ares class is armed with rune clusters to make the hull as strong as steel. It is warded so that no un-authorized party can enter. As for the offensive weapons, each ship has large crossbows that shoots steel tipped arrows that can easily pierced the hull of any ship bar our own. Once it is stuck in the hull, the arrow will simply explode. The arrows are 4 feet long. However the most devastating weapon is on the flagship class. It's main deck holds the biggest of all crossbows that shoots 10 feet long missile. In theory it should be able to pierce a castle wall. We never got a chance to test it.

Chris managed to achieve his target of 1500 army. We had to increase the number more as we needed more soldiers for ships. Our ship count is considerably low compared to others like the royal fleet or the Redwhyne's. But with the clever space expanding, out 10 ships equal to 100. And with the defensive and offensive capacity of our ships, they can stand a fleet.

Cronnongmen and we experimented with rice farming for two years. It took us a while to figure out the correct methods. Our patience and hard work paid off as now we are farming rice successfully. I have used all muddy fields I have to grow rice. Both parties grow equal amount of rice for the moment. But unlike me, they have much more suitable lands. My contribution soon will be insignificant if they expand. I built storage facilities to store rice. While it can be stored indefinitely without spoilage, it needs the correct environment. House Reed and house Gryffindor became close over the years. A union bound by marriage as Liam married a daughter of House Reed.


	5. Chapter 5 - Rowena Rewanclaw

Apart from rice, I experiment with my farmers to grow many varieties of crops.

Strawberry is one of the success stories. I have built a large greenhouse to use as a nursery. I am hoping to grow them commercially next year on 25 acres of land. Few exotic types of fruits are grown in other many greenhouses but they cannot be grown commercially as trees like mango and rambutan will be destroyed by the winter. Using grafting I managed to make them fruit bearing just in 2-3 years.

I didn't want to grow things that are common in seven kingdoms. So I sent for crops can be found in far-east. Soybean is one of those. I also started to grow wheat, barley and maize. For vegetable, carrot, beetroot, potato, turnip and tomato is growing. I often travelled to watch acres of farm lands. I simply couldn't get enough of it.

Livestock is another booming industry. It is not commercially done. But I have introduced goats, sheep, and domesticated bovine. For the first time ever north is eating well. No northern lord considers me an outsider now.

Moat Cailin was rebuilt to its former glory. It will be finished in just a couple of weeks. I intend to hold a grand feast in celebration. I sent messages to many lords, knights of westeros as well as important people from Essos. The feast is to be held in 3 months and it will be as grand as it can be.

Sending messages has been one of the most hated things in this world for me. I searched for years to find a bird magical enough to perform post owl ritual. Owls of this world doesn't have even single drop of magic. Thankfully Chris found that a type of falcon has magic which he found in the forest of Quhor. We collected more than 20 and now the number is about 100.

They can only locate a magical person. So it had to be at least a squib. Then I started collecting squibs from each major town/city and taught them how to read and write if they didn't know already. Once they are ready, they were sent back to their homes with a falcon. They have also signed a contract assuring that they will not open a letter not directed to them or deliver the letter to a wrong person.

The post method uses two envelopes. If I want to send a letter to lord Stark, I will add y letter to an envelope addressed to lord stark and seal it. Then I will put that envelope to another envelope addressed to post master of winter town. So the falcon will deliver the letter to post master it addressed to. He then will hand deliver the letter to lord stark. I was so proud of my success. Many people used the service often. It was not free though but many didn't mind paying for a faster and reliable delivery.

All invitation sent to north was accepted and sent confirmation of participation. Most of the Riverlands lords accepted. At least some from other kingdoms accepted as well. Overall we can expect over 100 noble houses.

Although moat Cailin was rebuilt, it was not to the same plans of the old castle. It is a design between a castle and a palace. Unlike 10,000 years ago when it was built first, there are many advantages to use. Glass for one allows creating large windows to allow light. Inner walls were made of bricks and plastered. That and the marble or wood floors added a brighter look to the inside. Outside the castle it looks almost the same except for the windows.

New great hall of the castle can sit 1000 for the feast. I was glad as looking at the guest list. These lords will come with their wives and children. I hope everything go smoothly as possible.

I was in my study and going thru heaps of reports. I called a guard outside and told him to call Rowena Revanclaw, one of my cloned cousins.

"You asked for me Harry ?"

Rowena has my eyes, a trait now called Gryffindor eyes by others. She is 16 years old. With golden hair and a petite form, she is a sight to behold.

"Yes. I was wondering if you have given any thought on the proposal I mentioned."

I wanted an alliance with Lord Mallister. Their seat, town of Seaguard is the only sea port Riverlands has. They are also very important if I want to undermine the power and influence of house of Frey at the Twins. I loathe the Frey family. House Reed has constant skirmishes with them. I was hoping Rowena agree to a union between her and the brother of lord Mallister. I will have to offer a really large dowry for the Lord Mallister to agree as she is not even from the main Gryffindor line.

"I have. I've met him once. He isn't bad looking and from what I could see not a bad person either. If you can manage to arrange it, I am not against it." He said.

"Thank you Rowena. Sit down. I have some ideas. I want your opinion as you are the one getting to it."

"Very well. What do you have in mind ?" she asked.

"For Lord Mallister I can offer to build him one or two war galleys. I am sure that will be enough to convince him. As for you and young Enrik Mallister….." I took out a detailed map of Riverlands.

"You see this small farm village ?" I asked showing her a village located in the banks of the green fork river. It is located east of the Seaguard.

"Yeah ?"

"I was thinking of asking Lord Mallister to give that village and some more land to Enrik. We can give some gold or more ships for that. You and Enrik can build a keep there. With your knowledge and skill, you can make that poor village a nice small town in no time."

"That is great. But why do I have the feeling there is more ?" she asked with a smile.

"Because there is. If all goes according to the plan, once you are married you can build a bridge crossing the river."

"How Slytherin of you? This way lord Mallister will have no way of benefitting from it. All profit goes to us."

"Yes. But you need to be patient. Wait for couple of years. For the moment think and design a castle you want to build."

"Oh I know what I want to build." She said with a smirk.

"you do ? how much is this going to cost me ?"

"Remember Castello di Amorosa in California?"

"Don't remind me? That place is something I want to forget."

"Well anyway, I want that. It doesn't have to be completed all at once. It will be quite suspicious. And reveal how much you can actually spend. I will design it in a way it can be expanded."

"Fine. Enrik will be here for the feast. You know what to do. If you need anything let me know."

 **Rowena's point of view….**

It was weird to be a clone to say the least. One moment I was Harold Gryffindor of moat Cailin and next I am a copy of his. Since I was him, I knew what he wants the clone me to do. I changed myself to a girl of 13, a golden haired, green eyed beauty.

It's not strange to take a form of a girl. Metamorphmagus are bisexual by nature. They enjoy both the gender they were born as and the opposite sex. Whenever harry wanted to have sex with a straight guy he is attracted to, he changed into a girl.

I should feel jealous that harry has all the power, money and prestige; but I don't. For all he has, immortality is a curse. He will never allow himself to fall in love. He will never have his own son or daughter. We all clones feel bad for him.

Although we are technically bisexual, we all prefer men over woman. When Harry asked me to consider Enrik Mallister couple of months back, I made a trip to Seaguard with my cousin Lucas Gryffindor and had the chance to meet him. While he is nowhere near handsome as my male clones, he isn't bad looking either. He is definitely handsome enough. Little into slim side than muscle but that is easily helped with little magic and potion plus a meal plan.

I am waiting at the main door of the castle to welcome Jason and Enrik Mallister to Moat Cailin.

"Lord Mallister Welcome to Moat Cailin. I am Rowena Revanclaw, cousin of Lord Gryffindor. My lord Gryffindor sends his apologies that he couldn't greet you himself as he is in Plymouth at the moment." I said after a courtesy.

"Thank you my lady. I think you already know my brother Enrik."

"Lord Enrik. It's good to see you again. Welcome to Moat Cailin. My lords please follow me. I will take you to your rooms."

Later that day I met Enrik again and I offered him a tour of the rock and water garden. The garden was finished recently using Japanese gardens as a template. In my opinion it rivals the garden of Highgarden.

"It is beautiful." Enrik commented on the garden.

"It is. The garden is deigned to symbolize the balance and the opposites." I told him.

"Oh ?"

"Water and Rock is the opposite of each other. One soft and fluid while the other is hard and steady. Everything in life and the world is between these two extremes. They are complete opposite of each other but together they balance and make world beautiful."

"That is amazing. Who came up with the idea ?" Enrik asked.

"The idea of representing balance and opposite in art is something one of my ancestors came up with. She lived about 500 years ago. She was a princess from Yi Ti. This garden was a joint project by Lord Harold and me."

"You are beautiful both in and out my lady." He said with an admiring gaze.

"Thank you my lord. I am glad to share it with someone who understands the meaning behind it."

Our stroll in the gardens was interrupted by harry.

"Rowena. There you are. Lily is looking for you."

 **Harry's point of view….**

Rowena excused herself and left leaving Enrik with me.

"So Enrik. I hope you are enjoying Moat Cailin." I started.

"Yes my lord. Very much."

"Rowena must really like you. This is the first time I saw her cozying up with a man despite many lords and knights wanting to." I tried helping out /Rowena a little. The poor guy was first shocked and then pleased.

"I am well enchanted by her myself lord Harold." He replied.

"Well something I should talk to your brother maybe ?"

He blushed but nodded.

At the dinner that night I asked to talk to lord Mallister privately once the meal is finished. He accepted.

"Jason thank you for joining me." I told him while offering a seat at my study.

"I was expecting Harold. Enrik mentioned something like this will happen but I thought you will wait until the feast is done."

"Well no time like present I say."

"Indeed."

"Well I cut to the chase Jason. It looks like my cousin and your brother are taken with each other. If you are agreeable I am not oppose to the union. Rowena is very dear to me. I am prepared to make any concessions for her if needed." I laid my cards on the table.

"What do you have in mind?"

"I will offer to build a keep and buy land where they wanted."

"That's a very generous offer Harold."

"Small price to pay for my cousin's happiness."

"Very well. As much as I want to give lands to my brother. I don't have any. We were not given much lands in the first place."

"Rowena had encountered a small village east of Seaguard on the banks of green fork. She liked that area."

"I know about the village you are talking about. Those lands belong to no one so technically Tully's own it. Lord Tully will be here tomorrow"

The feast went on smoothly. All guests were amazed of the wonders of Moat Cailin. Enrik's and Rowena's aren't the only marriage sparkled at moat Cailin. Many lords and ladies made alliances. Its not common for nobles for a gathering of this size.

 **Rowena's point of view…**

The feast was a huge success. Many trade agreements and alliances were made. I was happy to hear that betrothal talks with lord Mallister went well. Harry and lord Mallister later had a talk with lord Tully and came to an agreement of the unnamed village.

The village at most must have 100 families. Lord Tully agreed to create a lordship for Enrik and grant the dominion of the village. Harry negotiated and purchased 500 acres additionally to farm for us. One by one all guests left but Enrik stayed to get to know me and my family better.

Walking in the garden became a daily routine for us.

"Everything is back to normal now is it?" Enrik asked on our first stroll after the feast.

"Yes. As much as I looked forward to and excited about it, I am glad it's over. It was too much of work and responsibility for all the women of Gryffindor clan."

"I understand. You have a big family."

"Yeah. We are very close."

"Are you happy about us Rowena?" he asked a little hesitant.

"Of course I am Enrik. Harry wouldn't agree if I didn't. We never arrange betrothal if the person involved is not happy."

"I am glad but I had to make sure. I am very happy about the arrangement. And I can't believe we are going to get our own land and a keep."

"A castle actually." I corrected him.

"Castle ?"

"Yes. It will be a proper castle. Admit we will have a small keep in the beginning but we can expand it."

"you must have thought about it a lot."

"I have the castle designs drawn already. Would you like to see ?"

"I would love to see what my smart betrothed came up with." he said amused.

His skeptics flew away once I showed him the designs.

"This is incredible. Can we… do you think we can build this ?" he was stunned for a minute or two before finally found his voice.

"Definitely. Not right away though. You see this section? That will be the one to build first. Once it is completed, we can move."

Enrik is pretty smart. One of his many good qualities. He is loyal to a fault. Honest and very caring.

"I have one thing to ask from you Enrik."

"What is it ?"

"I want you to answer it honestly and truthfully. I promise not to be mad at you regardless of the answer."

"I will. What's the question ?"

"Do you have any bastered children ?"

That sure shook him up. He is 21 years old and I am not surprised if he did.

"No. I don't. I have laid with girls but I have never got anyone pregnant."

"Good. I do not care what you did before we were betrothed Enrik all I care is what you do now and the future."

"I promise to be faithful Rowena." He said quite serious.

"I believe you." So I replied.

Enrik stayed for 2 weeks. He left for Seaguard to select some guards that will be given to him by his lord brother. Lord Mallister promised to give him 20 guards and few servants. Harry promised to give me the same numbers.

Construction of the keep started as soon as Enrik reached the village. With harry's permission I moved there as well so that I can supervise the construction and be with Enrik. The idea of a bridge had to be brought forward as house of Frey declared a cold war. They refuse to allow passage for us unless we pay heavy toll.

"I don't know what to do Rowena. I can't go to war over this. And I can't pay the toll either." Enrik told me frustrated.

"Do not worry Enrik. Those savages have no idea who they are messing with. Do you think harry will just stay idle? I will send a message to my brother. He will send a ship for me to Seaguard. We are going to talk to harry." I was pissed off to say the least.

At the end Harry agreed to build a bridge near the village. To cover the cost, he will operate the bridge for 5 years collecting toll. We had no problem agreeing to that. So harry sent a large crew to start building the bridge. Meanwhile the construction of the keep was going on.

It took about a year to finish both the bridge and the keep. The bridge has its own two small defensive keeps at both ends. Harry stationed 25 men at each keep for protection.

The village has gone through a considerable change. It is not a poor small village anymore. It is beginning to look like a small town. It was named Longbridge after the newly built bridge.

Farming of our lands was started right after we got the lands a year ago. 50 acres of land were used to farm rice. 10 were reserved for strawberry. Another 50 was used to grow many types of fruit like pineapple and different type of berries as I hope to become a major manufacturer of jam. Other crops like potato, maize and some spices were grown as well. Poor Enrik had no idea about farming but he was smart and a quick study.

Enrik and I married at a sept in Seaguard. Both Enrik and I insisted that the ceremony be as simple as possible. Once the ceremony is done, we left for Longbridge, our seat of power so to speak. The town is the gateway from Riverlands to north and northern Vale. We estimate that it is going to be grown to a city soon.

Couple of months after our wedding the winter came. Thankfully we had time to prepare.


	6. Chapter 6 - Lily Gryffindor

AN - I don't own anything.

I have updated first 5 chapter with a little bit more information and timelines.

 _ **Lily Gryffindor**_

One of the biggest drawbacks of being the master of death is that it leaves you unable to father a child. As a clone of Harry I feel and understand how difficult it was for him to accept that. He always dreamt of having a big family. Thankfully he learned to make clones. As unusual as it is, we are his family. We are part of him; literally.

When I was created, he asked me if I consider taking the form of a female and be in charge of education. Before me there were no female clones. I didn't mind actually and chose to look like my mother and was names Lily after her. It was about 5-6 months after the grand feast of Winterfell.

Harry had one of the towers reserved for a School but it was not really enough. We had many children but few teachers and not enough space. So I met Harry to discuss about the issues.

"Harry we simply don't have enough teachers to teach that many and the tower is not going to work. We will need more teachers and temporary shelters." I told Harry.

"I have a location set for a school Lily but no resources to build one for the moment. Housing is a priority at the moment. But I will get some people to start on that."

"Thank you. As for the teachers, can we ask some help from Lord Stark and other Lords ?"

"How so ?" Harry asked.

"There must be people who can read and write. The lords must know few. We can pay them. specially Lord Manderly. White harbor should have many."

"I can send a message to Lord Stark. He can ask from Southern Lords. Why don't you visit White harbor and look around if you can find some teachers ?"

"I think that's a good idea. I will leave tomorrow. Can I take 5 Spartans with me ?"

"Of course. They will be ready tomorrow morning."

Next morning I departed to White harbor with the given guard. It's not like I need a guard but it will be quite suspicious if I don't. The city, the only proper city the north has is very impressive compared to other settlements of the north. White harbor is beautiful its own way with the cobblestoned wide roads leading everywhere and the whitewashed stone houses. It not only trade by sea, through the white knife river, they trade much further to north. They say that if Winterfell is the heart of north, white harbor is the mouth.

Harry had sent a message to Lord Manderly of my arrival. So it was not a surprise to find a welcoming party. The leading man was about 20 years old and from what he was wearing, it was evident that he is a highborn.

"Lady Gryffindor. Welcome to white harbor. I am Torrhen Manderly. Nephew of Lord Manderly. I am here to escort you to your accommodation. And then Lord Manderly would like to meet you." He welcomed me with a bow.

"Thank you Lord Torrhen. It is much appreciated. I am happy to meet lord Manderly once I freshen up and change. As you can see I am not dressed up for the occasion right now."

As we took horses, my dress is borderline indecent for this society. I wore a skin tight pant under a loose dress and knee length boots. Torrhen didn't comment on my dress but gave me an acknowledging smile. Torrhen is a handsome man. He looked like a younger version of Robert Downey Jr. I didn't mind the eye candy. He escorted me to a room in the New Castle.

Torrhen left after introducing me a servant girl who was assigned to me temporary and promised to come back to escort me to dinner. I was not unaware of the reasons why he was at the welcoming party. Harry had informed everyone that both men and women of Gryffindor clan will marry whoever they want and as the lord he will not interfere. The sudden appearance of a female Gryffindor is a chance lord Manderly would not pass.

Lord Manderly is fat. There is no other way to put it. He doesn't seem to care about that fact or what others say about his body. When he laugh it felt like the even the silverware I shaking. It is loud and booming. Generally he is a joyful guy. Many considered him to be craven and foolish but a little peak of his mind assured me that he is a cunning, calculating and intelligent man behind the booming laugh. His loyalty to Starks is unshaken.

He questioned me about myself and the life I had in Bravos. That was my cover story. He promised to send messages to few that he knows to use as teachers.

"I am sure I can find few within few days. I hope you don't mind waiting ?" he aked.

"Not at all my lord. Last time I was here I was only passing through. I do not mind spending a few days to explore your city." I pretended to not know why he is stalling.

"Very well. I am sure Torrhen wouldn't mind be the tour guide." He suggested.

"Not at all uncle. If Lady Lily wouldn't mind I am honored to show you our city." Torrhen said.

"Thank you lord Torrhen. It is much appreciated."

I was lucky that Torrhen is a good guy. He is handsome and from what I saw in his surface thoughts, he is genuinely good person. That is not to say he didn't have his problems. For one he already has a basted child. Monogamy is not found commonly among nobles even in the honorable north. But I am not worried. Over a century I have learned few tricks to keep a man faithful. Magical marriage contract will not allow any party to be unfaithful.

I spent almost a week in white harbor. To the joy of lord Manderly I enjoyed the company of his nephew. I departed white harbor with 8 teachers including Torrhen who told me that he prefer to teach people to read and count than taking care of his uncles business accounts.

One of the reason I liked Torrhen is his compassion. Unlike many highborn, he cared about the small folks. Regardless of his primary reason to follow me to moat Cailin, he proved to be a valuable asset to our budding school. Torrhen is no warrior but he is well educated. He has a passion for books. One of my side projects is to build a basic printing press. I will need paper and ink to go with it. Specially paper because we need cheap paper for the school. How else they can learn to write ?

Unlike a normal lady, I didn't have a lot of time to socialize. I was busy with the school as well as the construction of the paper mill. Torrhen thankfully wasn't discouraged by this. I tried my best to spend a little time with him every day. Besides he was busy with helping Harry do many things when he is not teaching.

Religion was and still is quite the debate among Harry and his clones. It's a wonder when there is any debate on anything at all when we are in theory is the same person. None of us wanted to become atheists publically. It cannot be done in this time and society. We will be following old gods like most of the north. But to what extent was the question. My argument is that we can cover up most of our magical effects by using religion.

Weirwood trees were no brainer. It will be grown extensively not just because of its religious significance, but also because of its magical properties. Unlike Harry, we can't do magic wandless. We can do simple things like summoning and banishing but that's it. We can't even do a weakest shield charm. We rely on enchanted items for protection.

We all wear weirwood rings enchanted to protect us from projectiles like arrows. It also has a local area intent based ward. The daggers we carry coated with poison. We all are well skilled in eastern martial arts. Harry spent couple of years training under Shaolin monks. We are well versed in both hand to hand and weapons like swords, spears and staves.

I personally prefer the staff. Mine is made of weirwood. I infused it with my own blood and enforced with runes. The staff is stronger than iron and can crush a skull. As a magical staff I can use it to cast some wide area battle spells. It's great for power enhancement but useless for finesse. So no hovering charm with it. I think Torrhen was having second thoughts just for a moment when he saw me practicing with it for the first time.

About a month after we returned to Moat Cailin Torrhen asked if I'll be interested in him more than a friend for which I answered yes. From then we spent a little more time with each other so that we got to know each other better.

Another six months later we married at the sept of White Harbor. Moat Cailin was not yet ready for a celebration of this magnitude. Lord Manderly and Harry went all out as the union celebrates the joining of two powerful families. Lords, ladies and knights from north and south attended the wedding and the feast there after.

As agreed by Harry, Torrhen and lord Manderly we moved to a small house in Moat Cailin. Harry commissioned a manner befitting our station. It resembles the York Cottage of the English Royals from our old world. It is not going to be completed anytime soon unfortunately. With the liited human resources we have, we can't be building luxury residencies for us when some small-folk still living in tents and temporary huts.

Thankfully a basic building for the school was finished few weeks ago. Now the school has a huge great hall that will be used for meals and gatherings and many classrooms of different sizes. A separate building was built to accommodate the teachers and other servants that serve the school. Large court yard was there for students to practice swords, archery and other weapons. Our plan is to get every male and interested female trained to fight regardless they will join the forces or not. Females are taught usual things like sewing, cooking and simple healing.

Harry and I had many discussions to finalize the curriculum. We will be teaching them reading/writing, history, maths and geography. I talked with Torrhen and he agreed to teach things normally a highborn was taught. He is in the process of compiling an encyclopedia of noble houses in westeros. Although there is the book 'The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms' it is filled with a lot of information. Torrhen's book will not have all the history of noble houses. He will have their flags, mottos. Family trees and a summarized history. Unlike the old book, his book will include both major and minor nobles including landed knights. He thinks that it will take him a year at least to get the information gathered and write the book. By then I will have a printing press created.

Upon my insistence, Harry relented and we built a paper mill. It is powered by wind. Wood chip are common as the construction of many buildings are going on. With a little bit of addition of magic, it was up and running in no time. To create a better quality paper we add cotton imported from the Far East. The papers we create are clear, thinner and stronger and can withstand the sharp edges of a quill as good as a parchment.

Apart from being used with education and administration, paper became a new source of income for Moat Cailin. It is cheap for us to make and can sell for a high price everywhere. Once I have the printing press, I am going to create letter headed papers to sell nobles for a higher price than normal paper.

Harry knew that a maester will be sent by the citadel sooner or later. So before they did, he travelled to the citadel himself and requested to choose one himself. He asked for a maester with a valerian steel link as he is interested in mystic arts. That was his cover.

His personal visit and selecting a maester himself was quite unorthodox. Initially the citadel was quite unhappy and refused his request. But Harry can be quite persuasive when he wants to. At the end surprising everyone, he chose an arch maester; the Marwyn the mage. He was again refused saying that arch maesters are not sent to castles and that is a demotion.

Harry had a private chat with the arch maester and explained why he was chosen. To Harry's surprise, he was the first person in this new world with an active magical core. Once explained he was more than exited to travel with Harry to Moat Cailin. The aged maester ignored the pleas and threats by the citadel and left with 2 of his acolytes. Harry made sure to get them signed contracts beforehand. I was elated to receive them since they came with a huge load of books. Torrhen had to drag me away from those books for meals.

One of the acolytes knew a lot about castle building. So Harry put him in-charge of repairing the Moat Cailin castle. The other one who we called maester Samuel became Harry's personal assistant. He organized his 'household' and looked after all paper work to Harry's relief.

Since the castle was not touched yet, Harry and all his cloned brothers and I lived in a manor built in the town. It is a replica of Waddesdon Manor from our home country. Maester Samuel took charge of the house hold quickly and ran it very efficiently. For the first time we felt like nobility. Most of the time we didn't have to ask for things. Servants trained and instructed by maester Samuel predicted our needs and made sure they were fulfilled.

Torrhen was given the post of chief secretary. He will be Harry's advisor and assistant in all non-personal matters. Although we can just download knowledge from someone, it has nothing compared to having someone like Torrhen who grew up learning thee things all his life. My husband was quite happy with his post. For the moment he is the only secretary but in the future he will need to recruit some assistants for him.

 ** _Year of 280 AC_**

Moat Cailin came a long way from its early days. The city is only second to White harbor in north in population with 20,000. It could be a lot bigger but we made sure to screen who we take in. over the years we have sent hundreds of scouts to find magicals throughout westeros and Essos. And they have succeded in finding them.

The city is finally named London as it is our capital for all intents and purposes. The city is the hub of an impressive road network. Almost all major settlements are connected with proper roads. The road development was a project that other nobles disregard initially. Once the road to Winterfell from London was completed, their attitudes were changed. All lords were quite happy to build roads just like that afterwards. A new road from London to Longbridge is proposed and most likely will be approved soon.

London city itself is a wonder. It looks like a city from Reach than north. This is thanks to clever application of climate and weather wards we have set up. The city is warmer than the surrounding and quite comfortable. It has gardens that rival Highgarden of reach thanks to the efforts of Rowena. Most of all without a doubt, London is the cleanest city in the known world.

Everything was perfect until the winter came. But we were prepared better than anyone.

* * *

Thanks everyone for the reviews.

vepmoon96 - Thank you for your advice. I will try to be more descriptive. I admit I am quite bad at it.

nyx'godness - Thank you. Lord Frey will not be happy to say the least but he cant declare war based on that. He will try something I am sure. Let's wait and see. for now he has winter to prepare for.

917brat - As you can see I have coupled Jon and Harry. There will be a huge age gap. I have to come up with a way to deal with that. I have few ideas. Wait and see how it will play out. Harry cant be the lord gryffindor forever. someone has to replace him.

Samael - the Fallen - Thank you. This is the first time I heard of them. I need to read about them a little and hoping to add it to chapter 7.


	7. Chapter 7 - Kellan & Taylor

**_Kellan Revanclaw_**

Since a clone is a perfect copy of the creator, I knew what Harry had in mind for me. I was quite happy to take the form of the actor Kellan Lutz from our old world. My job is to lead our naval fleet in the sunset sea. Harry has a single kingfisher class ship ready for me. That's all we had.

I did most of the work on the ship myself with help from the crew selected. We have 20 sailors and 30 Spartans. First task was to rune enforce the hull. By adding the rune of indestructible, you can make it unbreakable. That means no ship can ram our ship. They can try but it will be their ship that will break. The second task is to ward it against intrusion. This is a bit tricky. Normally a ward stone once powered draw magic from the earth. A ward stone in a ship has no such luck. This means the ward scheme needed to be creative and it need constant recharging. If I use volcanic stones, the ward can survive 6 months. After that it will not be very effective. Unfortunately you need to have an active magical core to power wards. That means we need to have a stock.

As for the weapons, I fixed two large crossbows in front deck that can shoot an arrow to a target 500 meters away. Magic is of course used to achieve that. The arrow is 4 feet long and has a steel head. It is again rune enforced so that it can easily pierce a ship hull. And the arrow will explode once stuck maximizing the effect. London is far away from the western coast. But the fever river starts 20 km east of the city. The river is deep enough for the ship now named Hercules to sail almost to the beginning of the river.

House Reed and house Gryffindor together going to start a new settlement called Marsh Port. It will be built on the bank of River Fever where the new harbor and port is proposed. It is not an easy task. It will require all of clan Gryffindor to create the harbor. The river itself needs to be widened in some places. That will be the job of house Reed.

It took us half a year to widen and deepen the required areas to create a harbor. Once that is done, the port was built quickly. House Reed and their banner men will send 100 families to settle while we could only end 50. However the families we sent are all sailors. They will train Crannogmen how to sail and captain a ship.

Meanwhile I tried to do my best to patrol the area with the only ship we have. Few instants we were in battle with pirates resulted in our easy victory. I am also supervising the western ship yard. It is located west of the mouth of Fever River. As we have a very limited number of resources, it is slow going. In my calculations, I believe it will take a year at least for it to start building the first ship.

My ship was being used both as a war ship and a trade ship. With the ship I sailed to Deepwood Motte and Bear Island taking trade goods from London. Harry sent instructions to initiate contact with Hill clans of northern mountains. The most powerful clan 'The Wull' lives near the coast of Bay of Ice. I was instructed to build a few sturdier large fishing boats to gift them once the ship yard is built.

As the Hill clans were not present at the feast of Winterfell, Harry told me that he will send the next clone to hill clans as a representative. His job will be to develop ties with London and improve the livelihood of the clans. They are the poorest in the north. Harry hope that better boats for fishing, teaching them to farm and animal husbandry will improve their lives considerably. The clans are the most vulnerable at winters. They send their young to winter town and very few elders survive when the winter comes. The representative will have to deal with the constant warring of the clans as well. If he manages to unite the clans, they can be a very powerful force.

Marsh Port was slowly taking shape. Harry sent people to teach Crannogmen how to prepare fields for rice farming. A ship full of paddy should be here in couple of months. Initially we will be planting several types of rice to see which suits better. House Reed plan to prepare 50 acres to test 50 types initially.

 ** _Year of 280 AC ….._**

Marsh Port is a real town now with around 5000 townsfolk. Trade ships from the town travel as far as the Summer Islands. I command a fleet consist of 9 Ares class ships and my flag ship Poseidon. We had constant skirmishes with Ironborn first few years but now it's very rare. That is not to say they have given up completely. But they learned not to come near a ship with a flag of Gryffindor.

We have a trade fleet of 25 ships which call Marsh Port home. Clan Gryffindor owns 22 of them while house Reed owns 3. Mountain clans now have their own common port they come to trade. Bear Island is now making use of their vast woods to make oak barrels that is in high demand because of the rising trade. All settlements of western side of the North benefited from the development brought by us. Borrowlands and The Rills with vast amount of empty arable lands are now slowly transforming to farmlands. Introducing cast iron multi-furrow wheeled plough was one of the best things I did for this world. Just like in my old world, this allowed the food production to increase significantly. In additions more concepts like collective farming and crop rotation was introduced to our farming lands. We hope that other northern farmers will follow once they see the advantages.

One of the two branches of white Knife River starts from Lonely hills and goes south via shepherded hills. This River was interrupted twice. Once in the lower part of the Lonely hills and again lower part of shepherd hills creating two large tanks. They provide water to lands east of Winterfell and lands south of Cerwyn allowing the expansion of farm lands. Barrowlands and the Rills already have few natural lakes and only needed a proper canal system.

Food preservation is another concept we have introduced. Thankfully salt is not rare in this world. In my old world, in old times it was so rare and expensive that Roman soldiers were paid their salary in salt. With abundance of salt, curing of fish and meat were easy. Pickling of vegetable and fruit was another method introduced. Pickled vegetable became popular as a side dish to go with rice. Korean Kimchi became so famous and now considered northern delicacy.

Rowena took over Experimenting with fruit. She now grows a lot of strawberries and some other types of berries. London grows strawberry twice as much as Longbridge. Rowena has a lot of greenhouses and she continues to experiment with exotic fruit and vegetable from east. House Mallister of Longbridge and House Gryffindor together started a jam factory in Plymouth. As there is already is glass workshop in Plymouth, they can easily get the glass jars they want.

Many Lords of the North and the Riverlands didn't care much of our fanatic attempts of food security. But then the winter came. Who's laughing now ?

 ** _Taylor Slytherin_**

Our lord Harry has a weird sense of humor. He gave the command of western fleet to Kellan who resembles the actor played a vampire in a movie. And then he made me resembling the actor who played the mortal enemy of the vampires; a wolf shifter. I was given the same first name as the actor, just like with Kellan. Neither of us was unhappy about how we look. No sane person will.

Eastern coast is completely different from the west. For one it has contact with a lot more ports than west, both of westeros and Essos. Harry had several ships when I was created. He didn't need me to take care of them as the captains of the ships already were doing a good job. My first task was to establish a base in our eastern shore.

White Harbor is being used as our port for the moment with the permission of Lord Manderly who we have good relations with. The marriage between Lily and Torrhen solidify the relationship. Harry didn't want to build a port that will be a competition to White Harbor. At the same time he didn't want to anchor our future battle fleet there. Harry came to an agreement with lord Manderly. As long as White Harbor can accommodate the traffic, all our trade ships will use White Harbor. And Lord Manderly will give our ships the same privileges of his own ships. We agreed not to use our own future port as a trade port.

With that agreement, we expanded the small fishing harbor and start building a ship yard. Within a year both the port and the ship yard was built. First order for the ships was 10 smaller ships of 50 feet long. They were made in two configurations. Five of them were made as trade ships and the other five as battle ships. The trade ships were of the already existing Kingfisher class. The ships made for battle were names Ares after Greek God of War.

The Five trade ships started trading as soon as they finished. Experienced sailors were found in many cities of the Westeros and Essos by our agents and scouts. Same with young and hopeful merchants that is waiting for an opportunity. The ships manned by these sailors, Spartans and merchants started trading with nearest 5 cities. They are Bravos, Lorath, Gulltown, King's Landing and Pentos. All these cities had our agents in the form of our clones. This allowed the larger 150 feet long Hedwig class ships to travel to distance cities like Qarth and even beyond the Jade Gate.

Interesting fact about ships and navigation of this world; they have not yet invented compass. And they have no knowledge of hydrodynamics. I myself do not know a lot but with the limited knowledge I at least know the correct way to go in experimenting. The new ships that are being built heavily use runes from structural integrity to defense. In addition the ships have something no ship this world has seen; a propeller. Thanks to magic, we do not need an engine. The propeller is charmed to animate using magic. The only disadvantage is that it needs Harry to enchant it. While we, the clones can do simple charms, something of this magnitude and finesse can be done only by him. Thankfully once charmed, it will continue to work without any interference. But this means that the ship can only be controlled by a magical.

 ** _Year of 280 AL_**

Over last few years the port town of Plymouth has grown. Due to all the changes in the North, sea trade has increased exponentially. Due to the increased traffic we had to move our trade ships from White harbor with agreement of lord Manderly. The port Plymouth still only handles our own ships but that number has increased to around 100 trade ships and 25 battle ships including my 150 feet flag ship Neptune. A smaller trade town was grown around the port. It also has a glass factory and the jam factory. It was proposed to expand it to process more types of food.

Speaking of trade, it made the clan Gryffindor the richest house of Westeros. Rather than flaunting our wealth like Lannisters or Tyrells, we re-invested them in developing our lands, expanding trade and developing human resource as well as developing the Road network of the North. That is not to say we didn't use the wealth for our own comfort and luxury. Harry made sure all his clone brothers and sisters get their own fair share of the wealth.

I built myself a small castle on a cliff bordering the sea. Like any of my clone brothers and sisters, a big family of my own is the greatest desire of mine. I built the castle having that in mind. The family wing has 15 suits for a larger family. The castle has large windows thanks to our glass workshop. Most floors facing the sea has floor to ceiling windows which is never seen in Westeros or Essos. They make a perfect picture frame of the beautiful view.

Speaking of family, I met a remarkable lady and his brother in Planky town. I was on a mission by Harry to Martells of Sunspear. With the creation of roads and the growth of traffic between different settlements, the number of thieves and bandits increased. At the previous harvest fest of Winterfell, the assembled lords agreed to create a common force to patrol these roads. I am here in Dorne on behalf of Northern lords to buy a large number of sand steeds.

Dornish sand steeds are famous for their speed. They are however not suitable for war as they cannot bear the weight of armor like a war horse. But for what we have in mind, there are perfect. The plan is to buy 100 horses initially. The trade talks were very successful. Especially when I told Doran Martell that gout can be partially cured by our healers. Aron was instructed by Doran to see to my needs. He is to be my assistant and guide to Dorne.

The world we came to is a harsh and bloody one. Harry instructed us to use the mind arts for our advantage but not to abuse it. So I have looked at his surface thoughts and found his not so innocent thoughts towards me. Intrigued, I dig a little deeper and learned that more than once Aron and his sister have shared partners. They are not incestuous in the least. They have never done a threesome with both of them as participants.

Aron Santagar of Spottswood is 3rd son of a landed knight house sworn to Sunspear. The book ' _The conquest of Dorne_ ' the knight of Spottswood stabled his horse in his hall. It was given as an example to show how Dornishmen love their Sand Steeds. According to the same book's clarification, Santagars are Stony dornishmen who has the fairest skin among Dornishmen. Aron was 17 years old and his sister 18. They both have sandy blond hair and brown eyes. Aron is 6 feet tall, 2 inches shorter than me. He is slim but not skinny. What I love most is his cocky smirk. In short, he is hot. I have learned later that he can shoot an arrow riding his horse better than most stationed archers. His sister Sylva on the other hand is a foot shorter than me. She is without a doubt a very beautiful woman. She has curves in right places. She looks delicious. My trip was exciting to say the least.

A year and half after my first visit, I married Sylva with blessings of Harry and her father. Aron moved to Plymouth with us since he missed his sister too much. He had the suite next to us in my castle which was given the name 'White Hall' because of the color of castle. the white stones used were quarried in Vale. My suite and Aron's suite has a connecting door hidden behind a large banner.

Initially our ships were attacked by pirates in the narrow sea, especially near the Stepstones. Unfortunate for them, even our trade ships are armed. Ramming our ship only resulted in breaking attacker's ship. Exploding arrows shot by both our archers and huge crossbows more often than not destroyed ships before they came near. Most of all, no ship can match our speed, so good luck catching up. The pirates of Stepstones became a nuisance than anything else. Occasionally we sailed to Stepstones with few ships and attacked pirates but mostly we left it alone.

What we couldn't ignore was the Three Sisters. The three islands wet to Plymouth has become a safe haven for smugglers and occasional pirate. I have informed lord Sunderland several times but there was no action taken. Then Harry escalated the issue with Lord Arryn since it belonged to Vale. Unfortunately Vale's hold of three sisters is loose to say the least. Harry personally went to meet Lord Arryn and told him that if things didn't change within 3 months, we will take military action against Three Sisters.

Unfortunately Lord Arryn couldn't control them. That resulted in the first major battle for our navy and army. Three agents were sent to the islands to gather information first. After the warned three months, three battle groups were formed; one for each island. All at once the ports were blocked to avoid any ship escaping. The Spartans, 500 each landed and met very feeble resistance. Besieging of castles were very with our mobile siege weapons. One by one all three islands surrendered. Then we collected proven pirates and smugglers and gave them the options of beheading or talking the black. Everyone chose taking the black. More than half of the offenders were sons, nephews, son-in-laws or other relatives of the lords. They were sent to the wall and we confiscate 22 ships.

We didn't really want the ships but we were not going to leave them with the offending lords. They were sent to the ship yard and repaired. Some magical protections were added as well. 3 ships were sent to Eastwatch by the sea. One ship each was given to all major lords of the north. For most of them it was the first time they owned a ship and their men had to be trained. Once distributed 4 left and was given to Starks. These ships might not be as good as our ships but they are match for any other ship with the magical additions.

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AN - Thanks for the Reviews.

I have few POV before the story move forward like Starks, Reed, Frey and Harry himself. I will not re-write the cannon. So the parts you know will be very short in the future. I will only write my additions. Do not expect lengthy descriptions of battles. Mostly because I am simply incapable of writing battle scenes. (sex scenes as well)

About Clones - They are not infertile. they can have kids. A clone turned female can have a child naturally. I have not seen Naruto so I did a little research. Harry's clones are not like Naruto's. When you create a clone, you sacrifices your life force. That means for each day the clone live, you will loose a day from your life. that halves the number of years you have to live. Harry fortunately is immortal. Also Harry does not get the memories of the clones automatically. if he need them he will have to 'download' them.

About English and Grammar - Thanks a lot for everyone who pointed out mistakes. I admit my English skills needs a lot of improving. My excuse is that it is not my native language and its mostly self learned. I am glad if you can point out my mistakes so that I can improve.

About Harry's future - How will Harry continue to live is a question even I have. I am debating with few ideas. Harry is not going to be a illegitimate son of himself or his clone. He is not the boy in the cupboard under the stairs anymore He worked hard to establish his own fiefdom and he is not going to give up completely. Just like he did for Rowena, he can always by land from someone and create a new noble house.


	8. Chapter 8 - Rickard Stark

_AN - I don't own any of these._

 ** _Rickard Stark_**

When Harold Gryffindor offered me anything I want for the castle and lands of Moat Cailin I did know what to think of the man. He was confident without being cocky. I was quite speechless at firt and more so when he offered outrages amount of money. So I tried my luck and started bargaining. Then he increased the amount of land he wants. At the end I promised hi lands more than few lords collectively hold. That is not to say I got the short end of the bargain. I bagged more gold than I can imagine and a new lord who is wealthier than Lannisters.

He thought he is being clever by replacing unsullied armor. I knew from the first glance who they really are when they accompanied the young lord with promised money. I chose not to act rashly and questioned him in private. Then he explained me the deal with them. It was clever. I had no problem as long as they are not slaves. I spoke with some of them and confirmed the story.

Thanks to the money received I could start much needed repairs to Winterfell. I ordered repairs to both the First Keep, the oldest part of the castle and the broken tower, which was destroyed by a lightning. The court yards were laid with stones so that it wouldn't be muddy all the time. Every part from stable to the great hall is being given a new look. The walls were scrubbed and the furniture were repaired or replaced. By the time the feast came, Winterfell looked a lot different than it used to be.

My lords were not really happy about someone completely unknown coming and establishing in the North. But I was confident that Harold will win them over. And he did. I do not know how in the name of old Gods he found all those valyrian steel weapons. I don't care to be honest. Now the house Stark owns three valyrian steel swords. One each for my sons. Harold's generosity didn't stop from there. He gave each lord a valyrian steel dagger and many rare fabrics for ladies and other gifts for young people. It was evident Harold want the North to accept and like him.

It all went well he made connections with all the lords. He even made peace with Lord Manderly and Lord Reed. I am not sure what he promised them and I do not want to know.

The speed of his town London was built is remarkable. Thanks to his loyal brothers, sisters and cousins I am sure. The Gryffindor clan they called themselves which includes several families that didn't bear the Gryffindor name. I am not sure where they are coming from. They came from everywhere. Suddenly there were about 100 of them everywhere.

He sent representatives to each lord to advise them. The maesters were quite put out by this. My own maester ranted for hours when he refused to accept the maester sent by the citadel and went there to choose one himself. To everyone's surprise he chose the archmaester Marwyn and according to what my maester told me, the archmeaster agreed to come with him once they had a long conversation in private. It must have been quite the conversation.

This however added the fuel to the rumors going around. I have heard whispers about Harold being the God's chosen and his clan came to the North because of a blood call. These people can be quite creative so I dismissed them even though his achievements are quite miraculous. But even I had doubts when archmaester Marwyn came with his two acolytes. He wouldn't come if there is nothing mystical to study. I asked the young lord about being called the chosen one and about magic. He told me that we of the North are old God's chosen. He said the blood of the first men hear the call if they dare to listen. He told me magic is in the lands, in weirwood trees and in blood of the first men.

Then he began to tell me tales about old Gods that his family kept. I admit they were fascinating. He asked me to come to London for next harvest feast and feel the old gods myself. So I did as well as few other lords. We observed their harvest ritual. It was simple enough. In their godswood, they had a large fire. They burned a token portion of the harvest as an offering to the Gods. I was surprised to see members of House Reed and some of his more notable bannermen participating. Once everyone offered their portions, the members of clan Gryffindor started chanting in old tongue. We were later explained that it was a prayer thanking the old god for their blessings and thanking children of the forest for their wisdom. As soon as the prayer was finished, the fire burned intensely as the Gods themselves answered. A moment later we all felt it. For me it felt like I am on top of the highest tower of Winterfell. Wind blowing and I felt like flying. It was the calmest I felt in my whole life. The feeling lasted only for a minute or two. I looked around and saw the wonder, shock and disbelief of my fellow lords who were observing.

At that point in time London was still a lot of disorganized buildings. Harold had a temporary building erected for a feast. The lords drilled him of what happened and he patiently answered that it's something his family has been doing for a long time. Everyone who came to observe went home with a renowned sense of devotion to old gods. I myself went to Winterfell's own Godswoods as soon as I reached home.

To add to his clan's achievements, one of his many cousins managed to unite the hill clans of northern mountains; a feat Starks couldn't achieve for thousands of years. To be fair, we didn't have the wealth of Lord Harold or silver tongue all his kin seems to possess. It took almost a year but a council of hill clan lords with lord harrold's representative and myself came to a treaty. The hill clans agreed to divide the mountains and set loose boundaries. They also agreed to create a council as their ruling body. Harrold's cousin promised on behalf of his cousin to extend his stay with the hill clans and teach them how to improve their lives. I promised to help them to create a neutral port in the Bay of Ice. Everyone was happy. I wish all disputes among my lords can be solved as easy as this.

Mountain clan is not the only people who had a visit from a Gryffindor representative. Harold called them scholars; that means learned men or women he said. A cold war started between maesters and scholars soon after. But it was evident that the scholars had knowledge well beyond maesters. the Winterfell's scholar, a Myrish cousin of Harold named Sid Bomer. What a weird name.

When he told me the idea of creating a manmade lake to bring water to farmlands with canals, I was more than a little skeptical. He then drew many drawings and explained his ideas. if it works, we can triple the lands used to farm. He showed me that using the white knife river we can build two of them. His estimate was that once both projects are finished, we can expect 7 times more land use for farming. I agreed to the smaller one first.

I continued to amaze myself with genius of these men and knowledge they brought us. It took us a year to complete the first barrier called the dam. It would take this long but I was reluctant to use more men for the project. It was a smashing success. The project delivered everything promised. I approved the second dam without any hesitation.

Winterfell is not the only one benefited from scholars. Most of the maesters learned to live peacefully with scholars and some became humble enough to study under them. Whoever couldn't deal with them was replaced because the North soon found out the value of the scholars. Each and every one of them took young boys and girls under their tutelage and started to teach them whatever needed so that they will replace the scholars one day. Sid told me that lord Harold's sister is in charge of creating a school where all children, both noble and common can learn letters and numbers among other things. I didn't understand the use of that. Sid tried to explain about raising a merchant class but I didn't pay much attention.

 ** _Year of 280 AC_**

The North progressed in the last 5 years than the last 1000 years thanks to one amazing young man. I was ever so happy that I gave him a chance. We are not dependent of south for food anymore. With new farming methods introduced and irrigation systems, for the first time in history we can feed ourselves. It's not just the quantity, the quality of food increased as well. Harold and his clan introduced many different types of vegetable, fruit and new recipes and food preparation methods. Most of new types are grown on a small scale for the moment and quite expensive. Only the rich and noble can afford them. But Harold assured me that it will change. Rice perhaps is the best of them all. It took a little getting used to initially. But I understood the importance as a grain that can be stored indefinitely. Harold makes sure he sends me a cart full of food stuffs once every couple of months.

Developing of the road network is something I whole heartedly approved of. He didn't need more words to convince me. The proper road network has reduced the travelling time between towns considerably. And it doesn't help with trade either. Unfortunately with increased trade and wealth on roads attracted thieves and bandits. The lords of the North decided to create an independent force to deal with them. Younger son of Lord Greengood a Crannogman, names Jaron was chosen as the captain with the suggestion of Chris Gryffindor, the commander of Gryffindor army. The young man of 22 years has been learning under the commander and has served in many capacities including a term at Night's watch. Although young, the commander assured that he is more than capable enough. Each Lord of north will provide men initially. The force named Northern Rangers will not owe their allegiance to any single lord. They will be like a city guard; only difference is that they are mobile. The Rangers will be financed by the Lords and by the new highway tax imposed on merchants. The tax is small enough not to worry the merchants.

Harold is considered a kind, gentle and joyful person by both nobles and small folks alike. We learned that he is no pushover when the lords of Three Sisters and Lord Arryn failed to deal with the smugglers and pirates. What later known as the 'Battle of the Three Sisters', he crushed the defenses of the castles ruthlessly. And then he completely destroyed the keeps. Then he seized all the ships and burned the ports. They shouldn't have poked the sleeping griffin, he told me. Even though no lord of the North made any contribution, he gave a ship each after repairing them. Winterfell received five of them.

The changes in the North didn't go unnoticed by the lords of South and the king himself. A year after the Moat Cailin was given; Harold was called to the capital by the king. Harold avoids talking about what happened there. All I know is that he spoke to the king in private regardless of protests by the hand Tywin Lannister. Somehow since then the king ignored the North.

Since Harold has many brothers, sisters and cousins, many lords of north and south sought out an alliance through marriage. Harold told the northern lords that his family gives a lot of freedom to the individual when it comes to marriage. In most cases men and women of his family chose their own whom to marry. Regardless lords Reed, Manderly and Mallister married their daughter, nephew and brother to the clan. Rowena, sister of Western fleet commander who married a Mallister was given lands and a keep was built by Harold. One thing is for sure, he takes care of his family well and I admire him for that.

The North is changed beyond recognition. So when the winter came, I said 'Let it come. We are ready.'

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AN - Next chapter will be Harry's point of view of the past 5 years and the Winter before Robert's rebellion. Thanks for the reviews and suggestions.


	9. Chapter 9 - Harrold Gryffindor

**_I do not own HP or GOT_**

 ** _Chapter 9_**

 ** _Harold Gryffindor_**

It doesn't matter how devoted, reliable and trustworthy your minions are or how many of those you have. You will not be able to have the success I had of creating your own little kingdom in a very short time. Well it's not exactly a kingdom as I owe my allegiance to Winterfell and then to the Iron Throne. Anyway, my success rightfully belongs to my cloned brothers and sisters. They are practically me; so I need not to worry and doubt them even though they do not have my power or control.

They were appointed to all the important positions from commander of the fleet to dean of Oxford. It is impossible for them to betray me; magic ensure that. Still I made sure they want for nothing. Many like Lily, Rowena, Taylor and Kellan owns castles and palaces rival any lord of the Westeros. I tried my best to secure their future. Unlike me they will marry and start families. I wanted their descendants taken care as well. The next generation has started to arrive. Lily's son is turned 2 years old and Kellan's Wife is pregnant. One day in future, they will have to be included in the secret.

My brothers and sisters are completely loyal to me and they are as uncorrectable as me. But that's wouldn't be the same with their children. Ambition and greed tore apart many great families and dynasties. I will also have to come up with a way to continue to be the lord Gryffindor. as I am infertile, I will have to find a way to sire a heir. Thankfully that can wait for a while. I have married a clone brother disguised as a daughter of a Qarthian merchant as questions were asked why I am not married. My bride unfortunately died of an illness several months later. Now the dutiful and loyal husband is not ready even to hear the word marriage. This wouldn't last but at least for the moment I am safe.

Over the last five years, house Gryffindor became the 3rd richest house of westeros behind Lannisters and Tyrells. But that is not considering our holdings in many cities of Essos. The fortune of house Gryffindor bled to rest of the North. This didn't go unnoticed by the south and the king. A year after I was officially given the Moat Cailin, the king summoned me to the capital.

I have briefly visited King's Landing before. It smelled worse than the worst slums of my previous world. I was simply disgusted. I have prepared my visit this time with some elaborate presents for the Royal family. Kings and royals are a freckle thing. They are often and easily offended and placated by gifts.

The king himself disappointed me greater than the city. If he wasn't on the Iron Throne, I would take him for a beggar in Flea bottom. And he seems like lost more than few marbles. Coupled with paranoia worse than mad-eye, that's a very dangerous combination. I made a decision then and there to harden the defenses and strengthen the military as soon as I leave this pit of shit and piss.

The valyrian short sword I presented to the king was well received. I had a peak in his head as well as his hand Tywin Lannister to learn that it was the Lannister who wanted me here. I cast a mild compulsion to the king so that he will agree to a private discussion. Once we were in his solar, I gave him a charmed bracelet for his 'protection.' The bracelet contains a strong compulsion to leave the North alone. He will not care as long as we don't do anything warrant his attention. Early morning next day, I went back to London. I am sure Lannister will not give up that easily. I can do nothing but wait and see.

Brandon and I became very good friends and lord Rickard like an uncle. Both of them were sad that Lyanna is already promised to another. I gently explained that we marry for love and Brandon said he envies me for that. That didn't stop them sending Benjen to sniff around Rowena. Unfortunate for him, a Mallister already got there first.

About a year after the grand feast of Winterfell, I travelled beyond the wall to explore the true north. For weeks I silently and invisibly studied the trees, wildlife and the free folk. I was surprised but glad to find that the stories of skinchangers are in fact true. There were very few actual skinchangers but many who can be trained reside in the North.

South call the North savages and the North call free folk savages. Of those two, free folk truly deserve the name. My first idea was to get them settle in my lands but I realized that they will not be able to adjust. All my efforts in the North will be for nothing if I bring them south of the wall and they continue their customs. I am however not going to say no to wargs. I approached them one by one and made some offers they can't really refuse. Permanent home, food and safety are not something to shrug off. I started kidnapping orphaned children from free folks and felt no guilt about it. I can provide them far better life. As they are quite young, it is easy to integrate to civilization.

My attempts at creating a wand were fruitless. My knowledge of wandlore is very minimal. But the biggest obstacle is obtaining the parts. There is nothing to use as wand core. I looked at so called unicorns of Skagos and basilisks in Summer Sea but they are not at all what we know as unicorn and basilisks. Only magical creature we found is the type of falcon we now use as messenger birds but their feathers are useless as wand cores. Lily managed to create a staff with blood as a core. The large size if the weirwood staff allows the minimal control it has over the volatile nature of magical blood. This is the only magical focus we have right now. Unfortunately my clones can use it because of their large magical reserves. But their children will be another story.

But then again it might not be so bad after all. I mean do I really need powerful magic users with wands that I can't truly control?

Speaking of control, I had to increase my military forces more than I thought. The thing about my military force is that they are not limited to one task. They work on Rotation basis. About 1,000 works as a city guard in London, Plymouth and Marsh town. Another 100 is set up as light Calvary unit patrolling the villages and hamlets in my land. Until the northern rangers were created, they acted as highway guards as well. Different numbers works in many Navy and Trade ships. All men-at-arms work at least 6 months in the wall. It was a chore and a half getting the Lord Commander to agree to short term agreement. I almost imperioused him. I do not think he regrets agreeing as now the wall is better manned. Many in the North think serving at wall is an honorable thing. But very few will want to lifelong commitment and give up women.

I was not at all ready or prepared for the pirate infestation in the narrow sea and the sunset sea. Initially I thought of keeping few ships as purely military but that had to be changed. My ships will have no trouble evading them because of their superior speed but other ships are not that lucky. I wanted to establish a naval base somewhere near the Stepstones as a solution but that will have to wait until mad king dies.

Oxford, our own answer to Maester's citadel was a great success. All children from age 7 to 12 are entitled to free education. That is if their parents or guardians are registered citizens. The registering process takes care of signing the loyalty agreement. Registered citizen and their dependents are eligible for other privileges such as free health care and loans for purchasing a house or starting a business. Age of adulthood is considered 16 and all men and women are expected to sign loyalty agreement. All citizens receive and wear a bracelet to signify their citizenship. The bracelet is laid with many enchantments. They are used as an access device for warded areas as well as a tracking device.

That in terms tied to one of my greatest inventions ever. Well me and 4 of my clone brothers actually. In the Moat Cailin castle, there is a room only my clones and I have access to. The room houses a huge table of 50x100 feet. On the table top there is the biggest map this world ever seen. The map shows all lands and sea known to men at this moment. That means Westeros, Essos and parts of other continents. Using the tracking devices I can track my military positions and if needed any citizen. The map based on the marauder's map has many features its predecessor didn't such as zoom feather and the search feature. While it uses magic, inspiration for many features came from muggle technology. It works like a giant muggle touch screen display. We keep trying to improve it.

Marauder's map didn't need a tracking device on people to track them. It used a passive connection to the Hogwarts wards to identify. How the marauders tapped the wards and not alert the headmaster is a mystery to me. A smaller version of this is available for the captain of the city guard Liam at London. The city map however works just like the marauders map. It is tied to an identification ward set over the whole city.

I can't cast a ward over westeros. It's too big and even I am not as powerful as that. Few of us who worked on this came up with a solution using runestones. The inspiration came with the magical detection grid my old world used. There we had a country wide detection grid that can detect any magic used intentional or accidental. It cannot identify what spell cast or who did it; only the intensity. This is used to detect underage magic control and cleanups after accidental magic in muggle areas. Taking the same method and principle, we are in the process of placing rune stones to cover the whole continent. The rune stones used in my old world can cover a larger area and the grid had few hundred of them. Here unfortunately the rune stones we have can cover a smaller area. There are two reasons for that. One the base material, the volcano stones while the best in this world has nothing on the magical crystals in my old world. The other reason is that the identification of humans is going to take a lot of power. So that in turn limits the reach. It's going to take a lot of time to cover Westeros.

Many of my clone siblings have developed their own characteristics, interests and ambitions. I made a deal with them because of this. They have to serve 10 years as instructed by me in any capacity I assign. In return they can do whatever they want after that. Many will want to travel and see the world. I envy them. Some of them developed strange traits and ambitions; strange for a clone of Harry Potter that is. One of them who I the scholar of Winterfell want to open a "Proper Star class restaurant" I was told. How he came to love cooking I have no idea. The strangest of them all is another who wants to open a theater/concert hall of all things. I admit I really miss forms of art from my old world. I cringe every time I hear what passed to be as music in this world. While I enjoyed few murmur's shows I have seen, they have nothing on shows of West End or Broadway. Regardless I can't understand dedicating your life to "Add culture to these barren lands and add color to the grey canvas of the North." His words, not mine. I suppose I should be glad both of them want to do whatever they want here. They could have gone to free cities. I for one can't wait for them to start.

I have decided very early that I am not going to advance this world to the full potential as far as science and technology goes. I came from a world where so called "Progress" had destroyed the world. Increasing sea levels had destroyed island nations like Maldives and countries like Netherlands. Many animals both magical and mundane died out. Men found ways to kill many and the methods became ever so easy to kill millions in few seconds. Westeros is an unspoiled world and I do my best to keep it that way.

Having said that, it doesn't mean I can't change few things. New farming methods and tools were introduced so that people will not go hungry. Food preservation was taught to be ready for winter. Few machines were also introduced which will not use depleting source as energy.

One of the first introductions is the water pump. It was essential for my new house design with indoor bathrooms and toilets. Creating water springs using rune stone was easy but I needed a way to carry water to homes. A large water tank was created to hold the water and a wind mill powered pump help to deliver water to the tank. From there it can serve 250 houses. Northern Water Supply Company is one of the very first companies formed. They are responsible for developing the infrastructure and operate the water supply. There were inquiries for similar setups from many others but no one dared to go ahead due to the high initial investments. The company however is in talks with some joint ventures with few cities like Lannisport and Oldtown.

Wind mills are a common scene in my lands and few other places in the North now. We have used a wind mill to power our paper factory. Paper and printing press is another victory. It took years to get it right. We knew the theory but implementing it is another story. Thankfully it all came together. Paper is one of the most popular exports of London. We have started to print books but only small scale and for our own needs.

Moat Cailin castle was ready just in time for the 5th year anniversary of London. The castle is another thing I am proud of. The three remaining towers mostly left as it is only repairing them keeping their original character. All 17 of other towers once stood were rebuilt. While we had drawings and descriptions of some of them, a complete new plan was created. Especially with the ability to make glass sheets, I made sure to build the towers with ample light and cross ventilation. The top most floor of each tower was made into a glass garden and the floor below it has a water tank. Rising above the glass gardens are the wind mills that pump water to tanks. The new great hall can seat 1000 at once and 2 walls of the hall has floor to ceiling fixed glass window. From the ceiling hang many chandeliers made by the glassworkers of London. They are as beautiful as any I have seen in my old world. The furniture was made of a wood that is very similar to pink ivory wood of my old world. The main table was made by using many different wood using patterns.

Same pattern followed to other rooms as well. There are many chambers that can accommodate many guests. All of them have indoor privy chambers with water brought from the tanks above. I took over the smallest tower for my personal use. It only has 7 floors including the top 2 floors. I have tried my best to make my chambers as comfortable as possible. I am sure even the king's room wouldn't be as luxurious as mine.

The feast is not only to show of my new castle; I hope it will also show case many more from food to music to glasswork to steel weapons. I am sure more than few marriages will have the feast to thank for. I myself am hoping to setup Rowena and Enrik Mallister.

It took us months to plan but at the end it was all worth it. Rowena and Enrik will marry little later in a year or so. I negotiated land and a lordship for them with lord Tully. Many trade agreements were made which will benefit us and the North as a whole.

Only lord who is not happy is that filthy creature Frey. He tried many times for marriages for my brothers and sisters with his children and grandchildren. I politely refused and he was pissed. Now he is even more pissed because of the alliance with lord Mallister. As soon as Enrik and Rowena started building their keep, he started to charge outrages amount of toll from traders coming and going from London. After discussing with Rowena we decided to build our own bridge. As soon as the construction of the bridge started, the construction site and the village attracted attacks from "Bandits." I had to increase the number of guards sent to stop these attacks. I felt that the cold war will turn into a warm one as soon as the bridge is completed and them starting to loose income. So we prepared for it.

Everything was put on hold suddenly as white ravens started to fly. The citadel announced winter.

The bridge and the keep were done just in time. Everyone stopped everything they were doing and started to prepare for winter. My target is to store food enough to feed the entire north for a year. We have another harvesting season until the winter. I spent time checking up on storage areas and re-powering the runes that keeps them in good order. All glass gardens big or small were checked and made sure there are no problems.

The winter was there for over a year. I had nothing to compare to but I was told that this is the most comfortable winter they had by many people. We had plenty to eat. Water tanks and the clay pipes had runes carved to heat the water and never frozen. Glass gardens continued to provide vegetable and fruit. Stored grains, curated meat and fish and pickled vegetable allowed us to eat like normal. Wards around the settlements provided warmth, shielding from the worst of winter. Our healers made sure people get treated properly so very few died because of winter.

There is nothing much to do during winter. So I spent the time planning and inventing things or tried to. I have been here for half a decade and I am itching for some traveling. I came up with a ship design made for very long sea journeys. The ship is a 250 feet long with 5 masts and 3 propellers. If all goes well it can travel at a speed of 50 kmph. I moved to Marsh Town for a while the ship is being built. Thankfully the ship yard is covered and still can work during the winter. The ship was completed just in time for the spring and I named it "Voyager."

Unfortunately my good friend Lord Reed passed away during the winter. Not even I could save him from old age. His heir Howland Reed was named the new lord. Howland is young but a very smart and loyal man. He trained with my Spartans and served in the wall as well. I am confident that he will be a great Lord.

I called all my clone brothers and sisters to London and informed them of my intention to travel. I personally visited Winterfell and informed the lord Stark. Grant, who is the mayor of London, was made the temporary lord Gryffindor but the military decisions were left for Chris.

I selected a crew of 100 for my journey and stored food for 18 months. Then I sailed to the unknown waters of the sunset sea where no one ever came back from.

If only I knew what would happen in my absence. I will regret the timing of my trip forever.

* * *

AN - Thank you everyone for the reviews and PM. Sorry for not being able to answer all individually.

 **Looking for a beta reader. If you are interested, please PM me.**

Rickard will still go ahead with marriage alliances with south. He is ambitious and the plans were made before Harry appeared. He cant go back on his words now even if he want to.

I realized I have made few mistakes. i should not have made Harry this powerful. Events of the cannon should still happen; at least the main things. so i had to remove Harry from Westeros. i should not have used the actors as templates for clones appearance. i cringe myself when I read it now. Well what to do ? its done. if I ever decide to re-write the whole thing, i will change it. but for the moment please ignore my temporary insanity.


	10. Chapter 10 - Grant Harold Ned

AN - Do not own GOT. If I did neither the Jon nor Robb will die. Do not own HP. If I did Harry will not end up with that red head fan girl. No Oedipus complex.

 **Harold Gryffindor**

I was really happy to leave on my adventure to find what is there in sunset sea. The new ship Voyager is filled with many provisions for the trip. The ship is exploded magically for storage and living space. The crew is little over a hundred includes many groups. There are archers, Rangers, foot soldiers, scholars and many more. Most importantly I have my new "Wife" with me. He is one of the 4 new clones. The plan is to return with me de-aged as my own son. My wife will be "dead" due to some reason. And the clone acts as my wife will become the new Lord Gryffindor.

We had no idea what's there and no way of knowing. Regardless of my magical powers, my senses cannot be used to search for hundreds of kilometers. Because of that I bought 2 wargs that can skin change to birds. Every day they fly above and look for any land.

About a month later we found small group of islands. Well actually its one big island and many small islands and islets. We first sailed around the island to find a natural harbor. Once found we anchored the ship and stepped into the island. From what I could sense there is no human life. Same cannot be said about the wild life. Apart from some bays and outward points, the island seems to be of a perfect circular shape. If my calculation based on the time it took to sail around is correct, it has area around 1800 sqkm. Our wargs scouted and found a perfect spot to camp.

As much as I was excited to find this tropical gem, it was nothing on how I felt when I found coconut. This is the first time I saw coconut in this world. it was a lot different than the coconut trees from my old world. For one they are short, the tallest was about 15 feet tall. But they had enough fruit in them indicating they are fully matured. And they have survived the winter which is impossible the trees from my old world. I assume they have adapted and evolved. Few kilometers inland we found few king coconut trees as well.

I have lived in south/south East Asia for many years and grew to like the curries they made with coconut. Now I can have them again. There are other uses of the tree like oil, ropes and many other things.

Coconut is not the only thing I discovered. I found many tropical plants I recognized from old world. They are not exactly the same but close enough. The island is very fertile. It is very much possible the island was formed by a volcanic eruption. For the moment I found no evidence. The highest point of the island is a mountain range in the north from where many rivers flow. We spent few months exploring the island which is now named "Griffin Island."

Upon close inspection we found several human skeletons or parts of them. And then we found ship wrecks as well. No one actually is capable of traveling to this island safely from the known world. The speed of the ships and their dependability on rowing or wind doesn't allow them to sail unknown waters for long. They need constant resupply from ports and they always sail close to the shore. A ship cannot really store enough food and water for such a long trip. Very few ships traveled to Volantis before I started trading and westerosi ships as far as Qarth or Jade gate is unheard of. Because of this, the island can become a safe heaven. I have been trying to increase the number of armed men but I was unable to give an excuse if someone asks. I didn't want to get the attention of the mad king with Lannister whispering in his ear. So I have little over thousand unsullied in the process of becoming Spartans hidden away in an island near old Valyria. But it is bit risky as anyone can find out anytime. With this island, not only I can hide them safely but also I have a place to give some of my mad scientist brothers to conduct their experiments.

I will have to have more than soldiers to sustain the island. Farmers and many other men will need to be relocated. Well we are in no hurry. I will have to discuss with others about this. Once we have mapped the island properly and explored it, we left it looking for more. Before leaving I set a beacon so that folks back in London know where we have been. This place will appear in the map.

Griffin Island is located south east of London approximately parallel to Riverlands. Our next leg of the trip took us further south east of Griffin island. about another month's voyage took us to another land.

This unlike before is not an island from what our wargs told us. It is a continent. It took us a month to sail around. The continent is as big as the North. Unlike the griffin island, it had humans. There were some settlements near the coastlines and I am sure the humongous ship gave them a fright. Once we complete our round and had a crude map of the continent, I sneaked into one of the settlement and downloaded the knowledge of who seemed to be their leader.

From what I could find, these men are much similar to the native Indians when the Europeans arrived in Americas. The similarities stopped at their level of development. These men and women look nothing like red Indians. For one they are dark skinned like the summer islanders although you can easily recognize if you put them together. Summer islanders are darker compared to these men.

They do not iron, bronze or steel. Their tools are made of wood and stone. They know how to farm and have domesticated animals. Their main crops are corn, pumpkin and beans which is grown all together. In addition their plate is supplemented by potatoes, fruit, meat, fish and mushrooms.

It took us a long time to win their trust. These people are jealously guard their environment. I asked the chief's blessing to explore further inland. He reluctantly agreed after I requested his men to teach us the ways of the trees and rivers. Our explorations were joined by some of his men to make sure we do not anger the thousands of gods resides in the trees and rivers.

We set camp on a bank of a river one day after traveling upwards a river for many days. We are on our way to meet another clan who lives near a lake according to our guide.

"So what do you think of these lands ?" my 'Wife' Helena asked while having our dinner consist of smoked fish and some fruit the guide showed us.

"I think they should be left alone as much as possible. I don't want to do what Europeans did to America. I am not saying just leave and forget. These lands have too many resources to ignore. But we have to be careful." I told her.

"What if we provide them with tools to farm better. That will increase their food production. Then the griffin island can trade with them for food." She told me.

"That's not a bad idea. I am sure we will plenty of things to trade."

Next day we had a biggest surprise we had on this trip. Our guide asked if we are ok to do a little detour to show us "Shining Cave" he found on one of his hunting trips. We agreed and followed him. What we found left us utterly speechless.

"Is that Gold ?" Helena asked as soon as she found her voice.

"Fuck me !" and I found my voice too. The cave was full of gold ore.

It took us many more months to explore the continent. Thanks to our wargs, we have very good maps of the continent now. Many names were suggested for the continent but my preference was 'Occasus' meaning Sunset in Latin. From what we could see, the lands had a population of somewhere around 200,000 divided by hundreds of clans. We met quite a few clans. The gold deposit belonged to the first clan we made contact with. We managed to negotiate an agreement with them for the mining rights and future crop trade.

It has been over a year since we left London when things changed dramatically. One evening one of my men came to see me.

"My Lord there is a ship sailing towards us." He said.

"A ship ?"

"Yes my Lord. A Ship with our sigil and with the same speed as Voyager."

Ohh this can't be good.

 ** _Grant Gryffindor_**

Harry thinks being the lord Gryffindor is difficult. Try being the mayor of London. Especially on winter. Despite my protests he appointed me the temporary lord. I can understand why he did so. Since I am the older of his two younger brothers, I am his heir by law. Understanding him is one thing but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Thankfully I have my kin to help me out.

Couple of months later there was an invitation for a tourney from Lord Whent. My eyes almost popped out when I saw the prize money for the events. I was not aware that they are quite that wealthy. I didn't care much really about it since its not like I am hearting for coin. Besides North didn't really care much about these southern tomfooleries.

Surprising everyone, Lord Rickard decided to attend the event. That and the large sum of money offered as prizes made many northerners wanting to attend. What was more surprising was the king's decision to attend. I sent a token amount of men with Lord Rickard to represent London under the command of Liam and told them to keep their head down. We do not want the king's attention on us.

Unfortunately everything didn't go a smooth as I hoped for. The crown prince insulted the North, Stroemlands and the Dorne with his actions. The idiot after winning the tournament names Lyanna Stark as the queen of love and beauty. He did this while his wife is in attendance to a lady who is already betrothed to another. It was a miracle nothing more happened as I am well aware of Brandon's temper and Lord Robert is not the most patient man I have heard.

We all thought the scandalous incident will remain what it is and things will go back to normal. Unfortunately it was just the beginning. Few months later I have heard the Crown prince's kidnapping of Lyanna. The war is inevitable. I called my kin for a conference who lived in London, Marsh Town or Plymouth.

"So what do we gonna do ?" I asked once all gathered in the map room in Moat Cailin castle.

"First we need to decide if we need to send for Harry." Lucas said.

"Can we do that ? I mean how are we going to find him ?" Rowena asked.

"If I am not mistaken, the ship yard in Plymouth is in the process of making another Voyager class ship right ?" Lily asked Taylor who is the commander of eastern fleet.

"Yes it is scheduled to launch in a month but I can get more resources allocated and finish it in a week." He replied.

"Do it Taylor. Harry will kill us all if we didn't send him a message. I don't think finding him will be very difficult. We know the general location thanks to the beacon. Let's hope he hasn't moved from his second location. Chris how is our military strength?"

"We can call the 1,500 reserves from Origo. It will take about a month to get them here. We have about 2000 here including city guards. We can easily add another 1500 -2000 from civilians if needed." He answered.

"The whole point of having a permanent army is not to have the civilian go to war. Recruit 1,500 civilians and start training them. Get them ready to take over city guards. We will not call the civilians to the war unless we really need them. Call the reserves and have them camp at Plymouth. What about our fleet Taylor, Kellan?"

"We have 7 battle ships including my flagship. We can refit some of the trade ships if needed." Kellan told us.

"Have 5 smaller trade ships refit. If the battle fleet had to move, there is no one between us and the Ironborn. How about East Coast Taylor ?"

"I have 15 battle ships including the flagship. We can also get trade ships refit for battle."

"Have 15 trade ships refit and send 5 to Kellan. Do not send any trade ship beyond Volantis for the moment. We might need them." Taylor nodded.

The discussions went on and on about other preparations like supply chains, healers, medicine, weapon and armor and so on.

Things unfortunately went from bad to worse as the news of Brandon's and Rickard's execution came. I sent a message to Ned who was in Vale to stay put as I am sending couple of ships and 500 men to escort him to North. It was a good foresight as the Gulltown rebelled and stayed loyal to the crown the city was attacked from two sides with our troops and Lord Arryn's men. The battle was quick and resulted in rebel's victory. The war is officially on.

 ** _Eddard 'Ned' Stark_**

I remember the first time I saw the repaired Moat Cailin castle and the new city London. That was about a year before the last winter. My father insisted I attend the feast. Upon seeing the repaired castle, I realized why my father had the new lord in high regards and why my brother was gushing about his new friend. Lord Grant who is the brother of lord Gryffindor told me that his brother is away and a messenger was already sent for his return. His cousin, Chris then explained the preparation they have already made. Despite everything I can't say I am not impressed.

"You have a secret army hidden somewhere?" I asked when he told me about the reserve.

"Yes. Your father predicted a conflict. He and my lord cousin made preparations. Neck and the moat Cailin is the choke point for north. No army can march further north without taking the castle. We couldn't raise an army openly your father told us to do it in secret and hide them. We were planning to bring them and hide them with mountain clans and Crannogmen. Nobody really care about those two groups." He explained.

"Very well. I need to leave for Winterfell."

"I will arrange it my lord."

It took couple of months but slowly the northern army was gathered at Moat Cailin. Lord Gryffindor was there just in time.

"My lord. I am very glad I could be here before you went south to war." he said.

"I am glad you could make it lord Gryffindor. My brother bragged about your skills in any weapon you touch. I am glad to have you with us." I told him.

"Your father gave me something Lord Stark." He said giving me an envelope.

"What is it ?" I asked looking at the sealed envelope.

"I do not know. He told me to give you this in case he…" he didn't continue.

"I will leave you alone Lord Stark." He said with a bow and left.

With a shaky hand I opened the envelope to find a letter written.

 ** _Harold Gryffindor_**

"Do you think it will have any effect ?"

Grant and I were walking back from lord Starks room. The lords gathered were given rooms at the castle.

"I hope so. The letter is a very good forgery. I made sure to include things only those two would know. So there is no reason for him to be suspicious." I answered him.

Lord Stark spent majority of his life in Vale. He doesn't really know much about the North, it's people, their hopes and fears. Vale is where the Andals made their mark. It's the origin of the Seven. I do not want him to bring those ideals to the North. I will not let him spread that bastardized version of Christianity. It is as corrupt as what is was in my old world around the Middle Ages. If we have to choose a religion, I will happily worship trees than a religion like the seven. So I made a clever forgery; a letter from lord Rickard to Ned. I hope that will help to diminish whatever he feels for the seven.

Couple of days later we had all the lords of north present and lord Stark called for a meeting. I offered a room large enough to accommodate all. from what I could see and feel the letter definitely made an impact on Ned. When the iron is hot enough, you should use the hammer.

"Lord Stark, my lords if I may ?" Ned nodded and I continued.

"My lords, why are we engaging on this war I ask you. It is true our liege lord and his heir were brutally murdered. Are we doing this to avenge them?"

"Of course we are. What else ?" shouted Mors Umber.

"If it is the case there is no need to march south. Order me lord Stark I will kill the mad king and the crown prince when I find him. I will find Lyanna as well." I replied.

"If you are worried about the fact that mad king call for your head lord Stark, I assure you no army will pass moat Cailin. This I swear on my life and lives of all my kin. No enemy fleet will win any battle in narrow sea or sunset sea. This as well I swear."

"Lets forget about the reasons and say we went south. Let's say We kill thousands of men. Thousands of our men die in battle. We kill the mad king and his son. We rescue Lyanna. Then what ? who is going to sit on the iron throne ? The queen ?"

"My lords I am not saying we shouldn't go to war. But do not delude yourselves that we do this in memory of Lords Rickard and Brandon. We are doing this to eradicate one dynasty and replace it with another. So I ask you what is in for us ?"

No one spoke a word.

"What has the iron throne ever done for the North since King stark bent the knee? The North has been insulted and neglected at best. I say we demand few things for our support."

Ned was anything but happy but to my delight the other lords nodded in agreement.

"What would you have us demand Lord Gryffindor?" Ned asked breaking the silence.

"The biggest thing I want to demand is help in maintaining the wall."

"Starks have managed the wall without any help for 8000 years." Ned protested.

"Yes well have you seen the sorry state it is in?" I asked a little irritated.

"I have been sending my men on temporary 6 month missions to the wall to help the night's watch. I have been sending food, weapons and other resources. Do you know how many castles along the wall are still standing? I am sorry my lord if things continue the way it is there will be no nights watch or a wall for that matter to manage. The wall protects all southern kingdoms, not just us. Why should we be the only one to finance it?"

"He speaks the truth lord stark." Mors Umber added.

"He has been helping the nights watch and it definitely helped with the attacks. But it still not enough. The wall is 300 miles long. Only 3 castles left standing." He elaborated.

"Very well. I am sure Robert will agree to this. Anything else?" Ned asked looking at me.

"I would say ask for a seat in his small council but I assume you will be given a seat anyway lord Stark."

"I have no plans to stay in capital. But I will have him give a seat to a northern lord." Ned told us.

"Last thing I would want to ask is royal permission to form an order of knights. Many of our brave men don't have the chance to become a knight just because they do not follow the Seven. If we establish our own order our young men can become knights and earn the respect."

"I don't see anything wrong with that. I ask you my lords; let me speak to Robert about this myself. It will sound better if they come from me and as a request." Ned said. And we agreed.

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AN - Still looking for a Beta. Please IM if you like to help. Thanks all for the reviews and PM.


	11. Chapter 11 - Robert's Rebellion

**_AN - Both GOT and HP is not mine._**

 ** _Harold Gryffindor_**

Northern army marched towards Riverrun. Hoster Tully is one of the most opportunistic man I have ever seen. Not only he demanded Ned marry his daughter who was promised to Brandon, he wanted old man Arryn to marry his second daughter. Lord Arryn is old enough to be Lysa's grandfather. He will have his descendants as overlords of three kingdoms in the future. Neither of those two girls made any good impressions on me; specially Lysa. I felt sorry for old man Jon. She is going to be a headache.

News came about Robert's win at the battle of Summerhall and then the defeat at the battle of Ashford. Valemen was not yet there. Arryn is having little trouble getting all his bannermen gathered. Unfortunately we had no time to wait as Robert is being persuaded by Royalist forces. And our spies notified about the Royal army marching to meet Robert. We had no other choice but to try to reinforce Robert.

Robert had device a cleaver plan to misdirect Royal army. He had sent majority of his force away from him and he hid in Stony Sept. unfortunately Jon Connington, the commander of the royal army found about this. When we arrived at the town, royal army had already taken the town and searching homes to find Robert. We didn't have much time to plan so we just flooded the walls and starting to fight Royal army.

Battles in an urban setting are a lot different than an open field. Usual battle tactics are useless here. There are no formations and battle lines. Men were fighting all over the streets, walls and roofs. My Spartans, bless them all, were magnificent. They quickly formed units of 8-10 men and fought covering each other's backs.

I stopped thinking about anything else other than the enemies in front of me and carved a path of destruction. Like most of my brothers and sisters, I used my battle staff. About 20 meters away I saw Lord Tully fighting Jon Connington and from what I could see Connington is winning. I tried my best to get there but there were many between him and me. Just as Connington was swaying his sword for the final blow to end wounded lord Tully, Ser Denys blocked it, giving Tully men to drag their lord away. Unfortunately Ser Denys was no match for the new hand of the king.

I had no choice but to use a little magic. I jumped in to the air bypassing soldiers and landed near Connington. My magical jump was enough distraction for badly wounded Ser Denys to get away.

"So the new griffin himself. There will be only one griffin left." Connington challenged me.

"Unlike you pretender, this griffin can actually fly." I answered back and attacked.

He was a very good swordsman. But unfortunate for him I was taught by the shaolin monks and trained with them for couple of years. Soon he realized he has no chance in defeating me and tried to flee. I was not going to let him do that. As soon as the opportunity presented I gave him a fatal blow to his head. The rune enforced battle staff is stronger than any metal and dented his helm killing him instantly.

With the death of their commander royal army retreated.

Somewhere in the middle of the battle Robert had joined the battle and that caused our win as much as Connington's death. Once the battle was over, the armies decided to retreat back to Riverrun as the town is not a well defensive position.

I have met Robert before at the 5th anniversary feast of London. Then he was a young lord and our interaction was very limited. Now he is the lord paramount of Stormlands and possible future king. After the battle, all lords and important knights gathered for a victory feast. Robert spent the whole time getting drunk and flirting with anyone with tits. I wondered and worried about the person we are trying to place on the iron throne.

"Lord Harold, so you killed Connington I've heard." Robert commented right after the battle.

"I have Lord Robert." I answered.

"You should call him your grace. He is your king." some guy I didn't know interrupted.

"I will call him my king when he sits on the Iron Throne. As justified as it might be, we all are rebels fighting against the rightful king. My men and I will do all in our power to make Lord Robert the king of seven kingdoms and then call him our king. Not a moment sooner." I replied the arrogant knight.

That declaration was heard by many lords. Robert was impressed for some reason with that unlike many lords.

Several days later it was the double wedding of Tully Sisters. With the recent victory it became a wedding/victory feast. The festivities lasted for a week. While other lords and knights spent their time celebrating, I used that time to consolidate my forces and plan for the battles to come.

With me I have about 2000 Spartans. I was told that civilians were recruited and put to city guard jobs. 100 men served at the wall were called back and they are assisting with the city guards. The reserves from Origo have landed at Plymouth. That is another 1500 men.

Western fleet has 10 trade ships re-fit for battle as well as the 7 battleships. Two smaller battle ships and 3 refit trade ships were used to patrol the sunset sea. All other ships are now harbored at Seaguard fully armed and manned. Eastern fleet has 15 trade ships refit and used in patrol while the battle fleet is ready for battle. I have a plan; a plan to elevate us and own some great real-estate.

Once all the drinking and whoring is done, all major lords and commanders gathered for a war council. The table in the room had a large map of westeros and statues representing armies. One statue indicates 5000 men.

The rebel army's number was impressive. We had 15,000 northern men, 10,000 storm landers, 20,000 Valemen and 15,000 Rivermen.

Although the combined number isn't to be laugh about, the Tyrell army alone out number rebels 3 to 4. Combined with crown land, Dorne and royalist Rivermen and storm landers, we are not in a favorable situation. Half of Reach army is camped outside of Storm's End castle. The Redwyne fleet is blocking the Shipbreaker bay effectively cutting off the castle from any trade. They plan to starve the inhabitants. Everyone is talking and offering ideas and plans for someone to show an error and shot them down.

"My Lords, If I may have your attention ?" I tried to offer my plan.

"It seems like Tyrell army is the real problem together with their navy. What if I take care of them on my own with just my men ?"

No one spoke.

"Redwyne-Tyrell fleet I can easily defeat. That is not a problem. I can't possibly defeat 40,000 Tyrell army besieging Storms end there itself. But I can make them pull back to Reach and wreak havoc on them. Rest of the royal army you can easily match against."

"How ?" Ned found his voice somehow. "How would you do that ?"

"With lot of courage, wit, cunning and faith my lord."

"I don't believe you." Robert shouted. And that's what I was waiting for.

"Oh you don't? Will you be brave enough to bet on it my lord?" I challenged.

"Yes. I will bet on it." He can't back down now in front of all the lords.

"Very well. If I manage to destroy Redwyne-Tyrell fleet completely and drag the Tyrell army at Storm's end towards Reach and defeat them, I want Redwyne gone from the Abor and the island given to me completely. I want to be named Lord Paramount of Abor and Summer Sea."

"You have some balls…" Robert commented after a long silence.

"I offer to defeat 40,000 men with my 2,500. I offer to defeat a fleet of 100 Royalist ships with my 15. Tell me if I don't deserve them if I succeed? You have nothing to lose from this deal. Let me sweeten the deal. If I couldn't do what I offer, I will give you 5 million galleons and 5 of my trade ships everyone wanted."

"I admit lord Harold as unbelievable as it might be, I do not really have anything to loose. But giving you Abor completely and destroying a noble house is not a simple thing." Robert said.

"I understand. But my lord, think of the long term consequences. Do you want a region that can provide an army that can rebel and win against you on its own when you become the king? By dividing the Reach, you divide the power of Tyrells. Make no mistakes my lord, Tyrells will always be Targaryen Loyalist regardless who sits on iron Throne. This way you will have the second largest fleet of Westeros Loyal to you. I can keep Hightowers and Reach in control."

"Fine. I will agree if you offer that 5 million dragons regardless you win or not." Robert counter offered.

"If you want gold on top of what I offered Lord Robert I want Stepstones. I will throw a valyrian steel sword on top of gold."

"Fine Damn you ! Take that useless rocks I don't care."

"Thank you my Lord. I will leave 500 of my men here. The rest I am taking with me."

All other lords had their mouth hanging and eyes wide. I didn't give much time to anyone to talk to me. I left 500 of my men with the command of Liam and left with the rest to regroup at Longbridge.

My kin and I have been planning for this. We thought that this would be the best time to expand our reach to the south. The opportunity presented itself. It would be idiotic not to take advantage. With Abor and the Stepstones we will have naval basses in 4 corners of the Westeros.

Grant had sent the word to our brother in Astapor to purchase 2000 unsullied right after Lyanna was kidnapped. They have gone through crash course at Origo and will be here in a week's time. With that my troop's number will be 5000 excluding men serve at ships.

Speaking of ships, few of our new type of ships and boats were built just for this campaign. They were already in the planning stage but the war force us to get on with it. Almost all ship builders and other related professionals were moved to Marsh town from Plymouth for this major ship building campaign.

Biggest new ship is a 200 feet long multi deck catamaran made just for troop transport or in peace time passenger transport. This ship can transport up to 750 people comfortably. The ship was built to act as a mobile command center.

Second big ship built was a carrier ship. It looks same as the new transport ship but this one transport a new type of boat. The idea for this boat came from one of my brothers who stationed at Volantis. After the fall of Rhoyne Empire, many fertile lands were abandoned. My brother was especially interested about the Golden Fields west of the Dagger Lake. He wanted a fast small boat can operate on rivers like Rhoyner. To protect the land from others who might not like the new settlements. So we developed a fast attack boat.

The boat is a flat bottom 15 feet long that can carry 10 soldiers. It has a smaller version of the missile launchers we developed for ships. It shoots 3 feet long arrow that can devastate a smaller ship and equally disastrous to enemy troops it attacks. The specialty of this launcher is that it can easily detached and wheels can be attached to use in land combat. This might not be powerful enough to break stone castle walls but anything wooden including castle gates are a fair game.

Since these boats are made for rivers, they are carried in the sea by a 'Sea Horse' class carrier ship. This is not to say they can't operate in the sea but they are not suited for long trips and rough sea. The new carrier ship can carry up to 40 boats. Right now we have 2 carrier ships, 80 'Arrow' class boats.

Almost all of my kin in Westeros were gathered at Longbridge for our own war council.

"How exactly are you planning to make Reach's Army pull back ?" Rowena asked me.

"By attacking their Pride." It was Grant who answered.

"Few thousand men of ours is not enough to commit all of their 40,000 men in the Stormlands to come for rescue. But we can attack places most important to them. Once the Redwyne fleet is destroyed, Eastern fleet will sail to Abor and attack whatever the ships remain in Abor and Oldtown. Then will burn Oldtown harbor and damage the Hightower. Both Redwyne and Hightower forces will not remain where they are then. At the same time we will attack and burn Highgarden as well as Horn Hill. Tyrells and Tarly men will have to come back. We will keep burning castles along the Mander. Then we will attack the returning forces using guerrilla tactics. We will use all the tools and dirty tricks possible." I supplemented.

"You said burn…." Lily Commented.

"Yes. We can't possibly capture and hold all those castles. We don't have enough men. So we will attack, loot and burn them down. We need to make sure to minimize the damage to small-folks. We don't want to be hated once all this is over." I answered.

We all knew this is risky and a gamble. Battle in the sea is not a problem. I am sure we can win all battles simply because of our superior ships. No ship can come closer to ours. But battle on land is not that easy. We can't outrun them and we have no real experience. Anyway it's too late to fall back.

We formed 3 battle fleets. First one will be responsible for breaking the blockade at shibreaker bay. They will need to destroy each and every ship for the plan to work. Then they will try to weaken or if possible destroy the Royal fleet at Dragonstone. Second Fleet will sail to Abor and destroy remaining Redwyne ships and then ships at Oldtown. Once done, they will destroy or damage the castles along the sea including Hightower using the 10 feet long 'Destroyer' Missile launched from the Flagship. Third fleet will include the bulk of the Spartans and 2 carrier ships including all of the Arrow class boats. They will first attack Shield islands and then the Arrow boats will provide support to Spartans in attacking Highgarden. Once High garden is fallen, the troops and the boats will travel along the river to attack other castles.

Davos Seaworth, a former smuggler who was with me since the beginning is the commander of the first fleet. He was also instructed to bring 2 ships full of food for the starving men at Storm's End. Taylor is the commander of Second fleet and Kellan is the commander for third. Chris is the overall commander for the Spartans. I will just observe and provide support wherever needed. I was told that they will need my skills and power when breaching the castles specially the Highgarden. All three fleets are to begin their attacks at the same time.

As planned we attacked the Shield Islands. There are four islands near the mouth of Mander River. As soon as our fleet was visible, the light the beacon on top of their watch towers to inform the settlements in the main land of coming attack. Usually this means Iron Islanders are attacking. Our arrow class boats proved their worth by quickly sinking all ships at Shield islands. Then we proceeded to block the mouth of the river so that no extra support can come through the river.

Spartans started to march towards Highgarden. There is no stronghold between our landing zone and the castle. They will need to cross the river at some point. 70 of Arrow boats took the other route through the Mander River leaving 10 to patrol the area and block the mouth of the river. Both the fleet of boats and Spartans wreaked havoc on their way. Our boats attacked settlements along the river not setting foot on the banks. They were too fast for anyone to catch. They have also destroyed the bridges over the river so that gathering forces at one place became almost impossible.

 ** _Davos Seaworth_**

Appointed as the commander of a battle fleet, a fleet of most advanced navy of the world is not a small thing; especially for a flea bottom born former smuggler like me. I thank the gods every day for making me meet Lord Harold. I met him in Bravos when he was just another man with lot of gold. He was looking for sailors to man his new type of ship. It was not a secret that Lord Harold is building a complete new type of ship with Iron Bank's Sponsorship. News like that travels fast. I was one of the first few he selected. Over the years I have learned a lot from him and his kin.

The task of my fleet was to break the blockage at Shipbreaker Bay by the combined Tyrell-Redwyne fleet. They have about 100 ships and I have 15. We sailed through the strait of Tarth towards Storms End. They knew we are coming and were forming battle lines. Unfortunately for them, we did not intend for them to come closer. With superior maneuverability and speed we formed lines and started shooting missiles. The latest missiles have a range of 1000 meters. Within minutes more than 10 ships were sunk. The wreckage was blocking the other ships to sail forward and they had to sail around them. Few minutes later our fleet repositioned for the second round of missiles. It took only three rounds for them to try to flee. Again unfortunate for them our ships are 10 times faster than them and need no wind or oar to sail. It took maybe 30 -40 minutes for all the enemy ships to sink. Most of the armed men or the sailors swam to the shore. Any who was unfortunate enough was shot by arrows from the archers at the Storm's End castle.

People at the castle welcomed me like a hero for bringing them food.

 ** _Taylor Slytherin_**

I am not going to be loved after what I have to do. I am supposed to destroy one of the nine wonders of the known world; the tallest building in the world. On top of that, I should destroy 4 more castles, Old town harbor and Abor's Ryamsport and Starfish harbor.

Our first target was Sunflower hall. Using the massive launcher of the flagship Poseidon, we attacked with 'Destroyer' missiles. It took just 6 missiles. The next target was the remaining Redwyne ships. They only had about 15 ships and took us just few minutes. From then systematically we destroyed everything we could from our ships. I was not happy to see the Hightower breakdown. Reminded me of the collapse of world trade center after the 9/11 attack. But that's what we had to do.

 ** _Chris Gryffindor_**

While Harry is leading the arrow boats through the river, we took the direct route to Highgarden in land. It was about 250km long march. It took us almost a week. Thankfully there was not a lot of resistance. The boats were already there. They brought a mobile version of destroyer missile launcher with them. One by one each and every tiered-wall was breeched. They surrendered without much resistance after our forces entered the castle. In addition to the many treasures, we also secured many important hostages including Tyrell family.

Once Highgarden fell, we travel through the Mander and using 'Destroyer' missiles, destroyed the castles along the river. Like all the castles we destroyed, we sent a messenger informing them of what's coming and warned them to flee if they don't want to be buried alive. We weren't planning to hold those castles except Bitterbridge.

Our boats had been destroying the bridges making sure that Bitterbridge is the only place to cross the river. Returning Tyrell army will have to pass there. That is where we will make our stand.

As expected few weeks later Tyrell army arrived and camped outside of Bitterbridge. Close enough for our missiles to target. Few of my kin and I sneaked into their camp at night and made preparations. We untied the horses first and then pour inflammable substances over their supply carts and tents. Once that is done, we went back to the castle and sent the first round of missiles waking the tired and sleepy army. Then our horsed archers came in and fired the flaming arrows setting fire to the camp. That was the signal for the second and third round of missiles.

Within few moments they lost their horses, supply carts set on fire. And thousands killed by missiles. Without proper leadership they began to run and our 500 horsed archers followed killing as many as possible. While all this is happening my kin and I were on an important mission to capture as much as nobles as hostage. Once we have them in custody, there will be no one to lead them effectively rendering the army useless. We manage to capture Randel Tarly and Mace Tyrell. Our work here is done. We fulfilled the promise.

 ** _Harold Gryffindor_**

At the same time the rest of the royalist army had marched north to face the rebels camping north of Trident. I learned that it was a victory for rebels with Robert killing the crown prince. Lannisters who had been silent since the beginning now marching towards King's Landing. I wasn't worried. They will not be stupid enough to support Targaryens after all victories by rebels. Tywin Lannister is anything but stupid. I cannot however move my men anywhere. Although Reach's army scattered and their leaders captured, I should always be prepared for some ambitious idiot to gather the men and try to attack.

However I rode as fast as I can to King's Landing alone. You can never trust Tywin Lannister. I arrived just in time to see they trick the king to enter the city. As soon as they did, they started attacking the city guard and sacking the city. With invisibility cloak activated, I went near to Tywin to have a peak at his mind. I was disgusted to see his intention to kill princess Elia and innocent children. I raced towards the Red Keep to find them before Lannisters.

I changed myself to look like a Dornish men and sneaked past all guards stunning some of them.

"Princess Elia we have to leave." I said barging into the room.

"Who are you ?" she asked with a a knife pointing at me.

"Lannisters betrayed the king. They are sacking the city and soon will be here. Please we have to hurry." I urged and used a strong compulsion charm on her. She agreed after that.

I stunned her first and drew blood from her and her two children. Then I created 3 golems look like them. if they just vanished, I will have more than little trouble to get them out of here. so I made a plan to place decoys. On my way here I collected 3 dead men and transfigured them to small pebbles. I changed them back to dead bodies and bind them with blood drawn from each of three royals. This will make the dead bodies look like the three owners. And then I animate them using the power of resurrection stone and added very strong compulsion charms to act as real princesses and the prince.

Leaving the golems there I enervate the princess and took them away. Fortunately one of the minds I scanned while I was in kings landing was Vary's. He knew more than anyone of the secret passages. Using them I sneaked them to an empty house near the harbor. I placed as much as diversion ward I can. I know Davos is on his way to kings landing with his fleet. I only have to wait till then. I sighed in relief when I saw the griffin flag sailing towards the harbor.

I trust Davos. He is one of the few I really trust who is not my blood. I had no problem entrusting him with getting the royal family away from here. I told him to take them away and leave for Marsh Town and guard them with his life.

I entered the throne room later to see the lannisters present the 'dead bodies' of princess Elia and her children to Robert wrapped in Lannister cloaks. I was furious to see the gleam in Robert's eyes.

"Monsters !" I shouted.

"You son of a bitch ! you ordered to kill innocent children ?" few northern lords had to hold me physically from attacking Tywin lannister.

"So what ? they are dragon spawn. We should thank Lord Tywin." Robert Replied.

I was not the only one to realized how mad Robert looked and sounded.

"How could you…." Ned was the first to raise his voice.

"You are mad !" I didn't let Ned finish. "You are as mad as the previous king."

What followed was a shouting match between Robert, me and Ned. Jon Arryn tried to mediate but he was not very successful. It ended with Robert Denying me Abor and Bloodstone and threatened to have me killed. I told him he is welcome to try.

Right after the fight, Northern army started to march home. And all of my ships withdrew from King's Landing. Ned somehow got information that Lyanna is held in tower of joy in Dorne. Few of northern lords including me traveled secretly to check that. I sent a falcon to Taylor to move his fleet near Starfall. Meanwhile we retreated from Reach slowly.

To say I was furious with Robert would be the understatement of the century. I was not the only one. I have promised almost all the lords to take in some of their spare sons, grandsons or nephews with me when I get Abor and Stepstones. Many of these are the highborn young men who do not stand to inherit anything. Robert destroyed their chances of making something of themselves. Ned was smart enough not to give any excuses on behalf of Robert.

Robert might have thought he won this round. But what he did was lighting the spark of northern independence. It has always been my intention. Thank you Robert. You might have won the battle, but you lost the war even before it began.

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 _Thank you everyone for the reviews and PM._

 _Hold the Door... Really ? The Author must have worked as an elevator operator at some point !_


	12. Chapter 12 - Spark of Independance

**AN - Jon snow doesn't know anything and I don't own anything.**

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"I looked for you on the Trident," Ned said to them.

"We were not there," Ser Gerold answered.

"Woe to the Usurper if we had been," said Ser Oswell.

"When King's Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were."

"Far away," Ser Gerold said, "or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells."

"I came down on Storm's End to lift the siege," Ned told them, and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them."

"Our knees do not bend easily," said Ser Arthur Dayne.

"Ser Willem Darry has fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him."

"Ser Willem is a good man and true," said Ser Oswell.

"But not of the Kingsguard," Ser Gerold pointed out. "The Kingsguard does not flee."

"Then or now," said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm.

"We swore a vow," explained old Ser Gerold.

Ned's wraiths moved up beside him, with shadow swords in hand. They were seven against three.

"And now it begins," said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.

"No," Ned said with sadness in his voice. "Now it ends."

So it did. When we arrived at the tower of Joy, three of the king's guard including the lord commander were there. Ned plead them to step aside but it was unheard by them. We have travelled on horses for many days and it was damn freaking hot and humid. I had no patience left. Within minutes I had Oswell Whent on his knees and Theo Wull cut his head off. Remaining two king's guard had four each against them. As skilled as they were, quantity won against quality. They were dead soon enough. Unfortunately they manage to kill Ethan Glover and Martyn Cassel.

We rushed in to the tower to see Lyanna on a bed of blood with a new born held by a woman. We realized what happened and the shock lasted only a few moments for my saving people thing to kick in.

"Everyone out ! Ned you can stay but everyone out." I shouted. I knew there is no way Ned would go away.

Everyone knew that I am a good healer and obeyed my order without questions. Only Ned, Lyanna and I were left in the room. I closed the room and sealed with a silencing charm.

"Ned you have to swear an oath never to tell anyone what you about to see. Only then I can try to help her. I wouldn't ask if it isn't important. Both your father and brother swore the oath. Lyanna doesn't have a lot of time"

He was angry but swore the oath.

Without saying anything I cast a diagnostic charm to assess the situation. From what I could learn, she had a difficult child birth and there was a lot of bleeding. I did what I could do but she will need to be seen by an experienced healer. Thankfully I always travel with emergency medicine kit. I poured the needed potions and put her on statis until Lucas can see her. Healing is not exactly my expertise and doing these charms wandless wasn't that easy. But I was sure that she will be ok until Lucas can see her. And I was sure she will make a full recovery.

Ned has been very patient so far. So I began to weave a story. I told him that my family was taught these magical arts when we were marsh kings by the children of the forest. It took a while to make an elaborate story but he believed at the end.

"If Robert find out about the child, he will kill him Ned." I warned Ned at the end of explanation.

"I know. What can we do? There are 5 people out there who know the truth. I trust my bannermen but secrets have a way of not staying secrets for long." Ned said unconsciously pulling his hair.

"Healing arts are not the only thing we were taught. I can make sure they cannot spill the secret." I told him after a little while. I was not sure if I should expose more of my magic but I saw no other way.

"What can you do?" he asked.

"Blood auth. We can ask them to give an auth on our blood. I will add a little bit of magic making it a magical auth. They will not be physically able to speak of it to anyone."

It took a lot of explaining but he agreed. Ned called everyone back and I asked them to give a blood auth. No one hesitated. We burned Ethan Grover and Martyn Cessel and gathered their bones to take back home. For the three King's guard, we threw them into the tower and collapsed it on them. They did not deserve anything better.

With the loose ends tied as best as we could, we smuggled Lyanna, her son and the wet nurse to one of the ships we had in the sea of Dorne. From there they were taken to our mobile command center anchored near the Shield Islands where Lucas was waiting. Ned, Howland and Theo went to King's Landing to inform Robert about the 'death' of Lyanna.

I convinced Ned that nothing good comes out if we hand over Lyanna to Robert. I was aware how much Lyanna disliked Robert. After what she had gone through, it will be too cruel to make her marry him.

"What are we going to do with Lyannna and my nephew ?" Ned asked me.

"We need to hide her. I am more than sure Lannister is plotting to make his daughter the queen. Lyanna is the biggest obstacle. If we are going to lie to the king that she is dead, she can't be seen anywhere in westeros or Essos for that matter." I answered.

"So where then ?" asked the frustrated Ned.

"I found some islands far away in the sunset sea. I already have sent men and women to set up a small colony. It will soon grow. I can hide both of them there. No ship except mine can travel that far and I have no plan to reveal the colony to the whole world. She will be safe there. I hope at some point in the future she can come home but until then, let my men protect her."

"I am very grateful…"

"I am doing my duty Ned. Your father was not just my liege lord. Brandon was not just another friend. I owe everything to their kindness. You are now my liege lord, the one I have sworn to. If it's in my power, I will do whatever it is to help you and your blood."

"Nevertheless Harold. Thank you." Ned left the room before I could reply. Next morning he left for King's Landing and I took Lyanna and the child to our ship.

I gave the command to release the re-fitted trade ships and resume trading as usual. The battle fleets were broken and Eastern fleet went back to their usual duties. The Spartans in the reach were slowly retreating to the Oakenshield Island which was our temporary seat of power. They didn't come empty handed. Every little piece of value was looted from the castles but no small folk was touched unless they took arms.

Soon after I dropped Lyanna and the group, I took a ship to Sunspear with princess Elia and the kids in it hidden. I needed to talk to Prince Doran about them. Initially I thought of hiding them in Griffin Island but now because of Lyanna I can't do that.

Unlike previous times I visited Sunspear, I didn't receive the usual enthusiastic welcome. I was used to firm handshake of Doran and warm hugs of Oberyn.

"Why are you here Lord Gryffindor ?" Prince Doran asked when I was presented. The last time he spoke so formal to me was the day I cure him of his gout.

"Lord Gryffindor ?" I asked a little hurt.

"You helped that monster who celebrated the raping and killing of my sister and her children." Oberyn always the passionate one shouted at me.

"Come on Oberyn. Do you think of me so low? That I would condone something as barbaric as that? of all people Oberyn, you who know me better than most ?"

Both Oberyn and Doran had no reply.

"I fought in this war to avenge my liege lord, my best friend and his sister. I fought with Robert because of that reason only. I called him a monster in front of all lords. I did so knowing that I will lose what I was promised."

Both Doran and Oberyn was listening attentively.

"I was promised the Abor and the Stepstones if I defeated the Reach army and the navy. And I did. I defeated both. Had I kept my mouth shut I would have gotten both. But I didn't. so Oberyn don't you dare put me in the same category as them."

Oberyn and Doran bowed their head in shame.

"And we need to talk. In private." I told them.

I was directed to Doran's own solar. I made sure there was no one listening and dropped the bomb.

"Princess Elia and the children are not dead."

Both Dornishmen were silent in shock and disbelief.

"What do you mean Harold?" Doran was the first to speak.

"I have been planning this for a while. I managed to sneak in and smuggle them out of the city. They killed the three disguised as them." I explained.

I explained the fabricated story of my heroic rescue and later sneaked two princes into my ship for the most heartwarming re-union. Once all the tears were shed and hugs were worn out, the question raised as to what to do next.

"They can't stay in Dorne and I can't take them to North. Only thing I can suggest is that to send her to Volantis. I have connections inside the black walls. They can hide and protect them." I offered.

We discussed long and hard about the options and decided that Volantis is the best option. We didn't wait anymore after that. We sailed to Volantis with Oberyn. At Volantis we were welcomed by my distance cousin 'Dhonipos Khassar' who is married to one of the triach's granddaughter. This one was the one who looks like Chaning Tatum. He however changed his name. I explained him the situation and we decided to introduce princess Elia as the widow of Dhonipos' Cousin.

Since it had been a while I was in Volantis, I decided to stay couple of days there. Once we were provided rooms, Oberyn and I had a Long and hard discussion in privacy of my room. It went on and on for the most of the night.

By the time I went back to the Shield Islands, we had all men out of main land. So we went back to our own homes. Lyanna was out of statis and awake. After explaining the situation she agreed to our decisions. As a mother her first priority was the safety of her son. So I sent her to the Griffin Island. The ship sent her with will bring back my 'Son' and 'Wife' from Griffin Island.

All the returning Northern lords gathered at Moat Cailin for our own victory feast. It was just the excuse for the lords to have a meeting. It was explosive from the start. Ned had to bear the most of the burnt for being Robert's best friend.

"You have a decision to make Lord Stark." I said gaining attention of the others.

"You have to choose between your friend and the North. I feel terrible to say this but you have to. We all got to see what kind of a person he is; a cruel mad man and his word mean nothing. I don't believe he is going to honor what he promised to the North about sharing the expenses of the Wall or the order of knights. I will not do anything about breaking the promise made to me personally for the moment but I do not intend to sit idle if he break the promise made to the North."

Other lords nodded in agreement.

"I will give him a year to get things in order. But if he will not keep his promise after that, I will not pay any tax to Iron Throne and encourage all of you to do the same. Its time for us to stand up for ourselves. As long as there is no dragon, the North is safe. No hostile army will cross Moat Cailin and no ship will survive battle with ours. I think I have proved that to everyone."

"You want us to rebel Lord Gryffindor?" Ned asked.

"If we have to, yes. I do not advise to take our armies south but we need to be ready. I hope for their sake that no southern kingdom takes up arms against the North because next time I will burn the whole fucking thing to the ground. Griffin's fire burn warmer than a dragon's !"

Poor Ned just sighed.

Like I declared, I intend to give the Iron Throne a year. But that does not mean I will wait to make preparations. Unfortunately that means my cousin who want to rule the Golden Fields and the one want to conquer one of the Summer Islands have to wait a little more as I will be quite busy.

I have made a deal with Oberyn to acquire some lands in Dorne. I might have lost the chance to own the Stepstones and the Abor but I have alternative locations. The fingers of the arm of Dorne are few kilometers east of Stepstones. So instead of Stepstones, I will have my south east naval base established there. The area I wanted was empty. It's not a desert, just dry. I was planning to create a river starting from the mountains in the east. The new river will flow to the Narrow Sea.

The second base will be located at the south western point of the Dorne which is south of Starfall. Those lands however are useless to grow anything. It is all sand. But it is very good place to build a glass factory. We will have to build some extensive breakwater to create a harbor but once done, it can be one of the biggest in the Westeros. The sea is deep and can anchor even the biggest ship we have. It will undermine the importance of Oldtown as a harbor town soon enough.

It was 3 months after the conclusion of the war we made the deal official. We had a big public event and a feast to announce it too. All the lords of Dorne were in attendance as well as all the noble men of north I am employing in these two bases. Valyrian steel sword I promised Robert was presented to prince Doran in the event. The News I am sure will travel to King's Landing. I have given them a million dragons but that was in private.

Two of my cousins who were training under Taylor and Kellan were chosen as the lords of the two bases. With the public declaration our two new future cities started to form.

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 **AN - As always i apologize for my bad English. However I do not apologize for the mention of gay relationships. Don't like ? Don't read.**


	13. Chapter 13 - Dublin Madrid Lisbon

**Cedric Gryffindor**

I was created 3 years before the war. I have been working under Taylor with the Eastern fleet at Plymouth since then. I was asked to hold the fort while everyone else went to war. I was pissed but accepted my orders. I thought this is my punishment for being the rebel of the family. Harry is over protective of his 'family' and often forget that we are in fact copies of him albeit less powerful. I was the one to push back hardest I guess. I was very open of my affairs with men unlike others and didn't care much of what others think of me.

So it was a surprise when Harry and Taylor appointed me as the lord commander of the Eastern Dorne fleet and the Lord of the city of Madrid.

Madrid was to be built in the fingers of the arm of Dorne. There are four fingers and there is a bay between the northernmost two fingers. It will be used as the harbor. The city will be located south of the bay.

Madrid will be a mid-way hub between cities of Slaver bay, Qarth and beyond with the ports of Westeros and free cities. In short, it's going to be big. That means it needs careful and proper planning. I was given 2 battleships, 3 trade ships, 10 arrow boats, 300 Spartans and 700 men and women. Oh and a shit load of gold too. Among them, there were 10 of my kin who can employ magic. Thank Merlin for the small favors. Can you believe how difficult it would be otherwise?

While our men are building temporary housing, the magical folks started to build temporary wards. We are in the open of foreign lands. It's better to be careful even with a sizable force. I assumed it will take 5-6 years for the city to form properly.

I was told that I will have to give up my post as the commander of the fleet in a couple of years. Fredrick Glover, the younger son of lord Glover of Deepwood Motte is being groomed for the job. He is already a good sailor and has enough magic to use our special features in ships. He is one of the first few men who will know the secrets of house Gryffindor. They all have signed contracts and won't be able to reveal them to anyone or betray us.

Dorne is the complete opposite of the North. It's dry and warm. We wanted to change the landscape a bit for more comfort. Our first task was to create rivers or streams where we can. The thing about creating them is that you can't really control where they would flow. You can guide them to a certain extent but at the end, it will do what it wants. We experimented with several locations by generating a source of water; by creating a water sprout. After few weeks of observation and experimenting, we manage to create 4 streams that flow where we wanted. All of them join about two kilometers from the bay creating a large lake. The new lake has a small island middle of it. From the lake, one river flows east and meets the sea. The new city will be built on the banks of the river.

The small island in the lake gave me the perfect idea of what kind of a palace I would like to build for myself and my kin. Once I stayed in a hotel that was located on an island just like that. The hotel was originally a palace. Rajasthan, India is similar to Dorne and I believed that it would be the perfect thing. My own Taj Lake palace.

The island in the lake is about 5 acres. A bit larger than the one in India. Thanks to my perfect memory I can remember each and every detail about the palace. I will make the perfect replica including the luxury boats. It will have to wait though. There are many many more important things to build first.

The new town will receive its own Chief Scholar and a Chief Healer. Both of them will 'graduate' From Oxford in a few months' time. They are both Small-folks and women. Both of them wanted separate 2 buildings for a school and a hospital. But I told them it's going to be combined thing for the moment as I don't have unlimited resources. Combined school/hospital is one of the first permanent buildings we built. We also built a town hall. It's a large building with a gathering hall on the ground floor and offices in the second and third floors. For the moment it is also used as living space for me and my family living here.

Men and women started to flow in slowly to the new town. Thankfully the first thing I did after creating rivers is markup and divide the lands according to our plans. There are specific places for each home, pub or any business. If anyone wants to set up here, they have to agree to my terms or they can pack and go home. That is true for both the poorest man and the richest merchant.

The portion of land given to us was very generous. With the river and planned irrigation canals, we hoped to use most of the land for farming. Because of the different in climate and soil, we can grow many things the North can't. For example, sandy, salty coastal areas are perfect for coconut. Many fruit types that grow in glass houses in the north can be grown on a larger scale. We planned to grow different types of citrus fruit, olive and grapes in addition to different types of grains including rice.

Wine production is going to get a special attention. Harry wanted to make golden wine like Abor but better. I don't think it is difficult. We have magic with us. In magical world drinks such as wine, fire whiskey, and butter beer are always infused with magic by aging them in containers made of rune enforced oak.

I have to say I love Dorne. I can just do whatever I want and no one will give a damn. And I intend to take full advantage of it; starting with Oberyn Martell.

 **Charles Gryffindor**

Just like Cedric to Taylor, I was assigned to Kellan and the Western fleet. Now I am the lord commander of the South Western fleet and the new town Lisbon. Yes, we are going with Capitals of European countries theme. Just like Cedric, I have a guy in training to become the commander of the fleet in a couple of years; a Flint from the Flint's Finger. One of my kin married a Flint and they were given permission to build a naval base in the lands belong to Flints. Our Western fleet was moved to the new base after the war. the appointment of a flint as the future commander is part of the deal.

Unlike in Madrid, we had to build long breakwaters to create a harbor. It took us 6 months. Lisbon is going to be smaller than Madrid. Unlike the sister town in the east, this one is going to be only a trade town and a military base with hopefully a glass factory thrown in. the land is useless. Nothing can be grown except maybe some coconut and palm trees. We created a river anyway, just to cool down the place a little but even with that what can you do with miles and miles of sand?

Once I heard about the lake palace of Cedric, I decided to carry the same theme to my town with a beautiful palace of the same style from the same region; Rambhag Palace. It is smaller than the lake palace but more beautiful in my opinion. Just like the lake palace it has numerous open verandas and pavilions. Unfortunately, it has to wait for the moment.

Lisbon once established will be the only major port in the western Dorne. This will make more than few ships to use it for trade. One item of our 10 year Lisbon-Madrid plan is to create new trade routes both in sea and land.

It is planned to create a road network starting from Lisbon that goes to the east until Madrid and another from Lisbon to north until Nightsong. Once finished, these two roads will connect 75% of settlements of the Dorne.

One of the special projects we are planning to undertake is to try to create a magical breed from the Dornish sand steeds. Rangers in the North are already using them. They are incredibly fast and have stamina, unlike any other breed. But the problem with them is that they are not strong enough to carry the fully armored rider with their own armor on. We think that adding a bit of magic might solve that issue.

Magical breeding is one of the subjects studied by Harry in his many travels in the old world. There is no simple spell to make it happen. It takes years of conditioning and many generations. That is the first step. The second step is cross breeding. While we have no plan to create any blast ended skewts, we will definitely create griffins. And maybe Pegasus as well. This will also solve the problem with wand cores if we are successful.

 **Orion Gryffindor**

I was 'Made' just before the great voyage of the Sunset Sea. I was to be the 'Chief of Exploration' Harry said. I have taken over the leadership since Harry left for the North suddenly. A few weeks later the 'Voyager was sent back to bring us more supplies and men.

We decided not to colonize Occasus. With the Chief's permission, we used a small bay area few kilometers away from the first settlement we found to make a small harbor. We plan to make our base there. Our main settlement in the Sunset Sea will be on the Griffin Island. Further exploration is on hold until we settle properly here and become somewhat self-sufficient.

Griffin island is bit bigger than what we initially calculated. Harry did a quick calculation based on the time it took to sail around and concluded it's about 1800 sqkm. But later when I did proper measurements, it revealed the island is little more than 2000 sqkm in size. The north of the island is mountainous and the highest point is about 4000 feet above the sea level. All 5 rivers of the island originated from the northern mountains. The Southern half of the island is fertile flat lands. Our scholars are in the process of planning many dams to create reservoirs for farming. When more Spartans arrive with horses, they will explore the island to identify the best farming fields and best places for settlements. Some scholars are in the process of studying the plants and wildlife.

We made out temporary housing near the natural harbor we found in the southeast of the island. Instead of many huts, we made one large longhouse like the Indonesians for sleeping. We made separate buildings for dining and cooking.

A few months later the voyager ship came back alone. I was half expecting this. This means Westeros is at war and Harry can't spare any more resources yet. He had sent 100 Spartans, 100 horses and 100 skilled men of many trades in addition to food for 6 months.

With the new addition of manpower, we started to properly settle down. Our first task was to create docks and piers. Once that is done we slowly started to build our first town as planned by the scholars. At the same time, some scholars were sent to explore the island with the protection of mounted Spartans.

The voyager left back to Marsh town as soon as cargo and passengers were unloaded. We started to build our own ship as the new skilled men included shipbuilders. The new Griffin class catamaran is 50 feet long simple ship. It has the speed of voyager class and equipped with few missile launchers. The voyager brought us 2 Arrow Class boats and we made 3 more.

With the addition of new Arrow class boats, we could start exploring the islands nearby. We encountered 113 islands and islets. The 10 biggest are between 300-100 sqkm in size. Harry wanted some of these islands reserved for experiments; especially for a magical creature sanctuary when we manage to breed them.

Voyager came back with more food as well as farmers and their families. We had a place prepared for the first farm village. It was about 5 km from our harbor city. The voyager also brought miners and many tools to gift the clans of Occasus. We will soon start mining operations. The war and the exploration are draining our coffers sooner than expected. So we needed that gold.

Few more months later Harry came back to the newly named 'Dublin,' the port Town of Griffin Island. He arrived with one big surprise. Lyanna, the sole reason for the recent rebellion. Once I was explained the situation, I agreed that here is the best place for them. I promised to protect them to the best of my ability. The poor girl was still very fragile. She was extremely lucky that Harry found her right on time to stabilize her and to put her on statis.

The child was a miracle; he is the first fully magical child we found in this world. That is excluding the children of my kin of course. Starks are magically powerful than anyone but this little guy is like a shining sun in the darkness. I admit I have fallen in love with the kid the moment I held him. In that moment I decided not to let him feel the loss of a father.

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AN - Thanks for the reviews and PMs. Sorry for the short chapter.


	14. Chapter 14 - Trouble in Riverlands ?

At the lord's council held at Moat Cailin after the war, Lord Karstark proposed and unanimously got approved a suggestion to hold a council every 3 months. The next three sessions were hosted by Lords Bolton, Stark and Karstark. The next one was to be hosted by the mountain clans in their only town Griffinshore, named in honor of me and my kin.

Mountain Clans had come a long way from what they were. Griffinshore is the coastal town and port we helped them to build. Majority of the clans gather there for the winter. They are still mostly Shepherds and hunters than farmers. But now the difference is they have reasonably good homes, enough food and access to medicine and healthcare. Slowly they are losing their less than civilized ways of life as their lives becoming easier. The gathering is an opportunity to show the other lords how much they have changed.

"My lords, ladies, Clan chiefs and all gathered northern men and women. First, I would like to thank the mountain clans for their hospitality and this wonderful feast."

Ned was giving the welcoming speech. The council meeting always starts with a feast. The real meeting happens the next day.

"Then I welcome everyone who gathered for our 5th council meeting. We have many things to discuss and many more to decide and make plans for. But for now let's enjoy the wonderful feast and leave everything else for tomorrow. For the North !"

Every one of us raised our glasses for that. Ned has changed a lot over the past year. He isn't the naïve teenager he was. He is still stupidly honest and considers honor above everything else. But he is changing slowly. Suddenly Lord Manderly stood up and everyone paid attention to him. I knew what's about to happen and I couldn't be happier of my years of efforts in changing him. Now we can truly unite the North.

"My Lords and Ladies. I have an announcement to make. Over the last few years the North has changed thanks to Lord Gryffindor and his kin for the most part. I have seen how the North forgets petty rivalries and become as one when our lord and the heir was brutally murdered. For hundreds of years house Manderly stayed true to our ancient roots and followed the Seven and that made us different from rest of the North. I believe it's time for us to change. So today in front of all the lords and ladies of the North I declare that House Manderly and its bannermen will abandon the last of our southern roots and embrace the religion of old gods. Thus becoming true northern men."

The reaction to his declaration was thunderous. The topic was the elephant in the room whenever there is a gathering. Lord Manderly was well liked and respected but his faith was much to be desired. The decision will not be popular south of the neck and in White Harbor, at least in the beginning. But the choice of a man's religion is his own despite the motivations behind it.

The real council meeting was held the next day after the lunch. The first speaker was a member of the Wull Clan; the eldest son of chief Wull. He explained what was done, the progress, issues faces and future plans for mountain clans. That was followed by other lords with the same format. The first part of the council was concluded with the joint report of Cedric and Charles about our bases of Lisbon and Madrid.

The council continued next day. There were many issues and proposals discussed and debated. A proposal to increase the number of northern rangers was approved. The number will increase to 1000 and no one really made any fuss over the cost as the benefit is clearly shown in the past years. Besides with the advances in almost all aspects from day to day life to farming, trading and mining, the North is not exactly the poor place it was long ago.

With the advances and the improved life in the North, many smallfolks from south started to move to Northern settlements. We discussed the merit of starting new towns and villages and then who should be leading them. After many hours of talk, 7 new settlements were planned. And they were awarded to deserving bannermen of the lords. The North is vast and empty so we can start hundred new settlements and there will still be land left for more.

One of my brothers dedicated all his time since his birth to study the weirwood trees. Even with the century of knowledge and skills he hasn't made much progress in understanding the magical tree. However he discovered that the tree can anchor and amplify some wards and charms. Recently he tested and proved that climate control wards and charms can be anchored to weirwood trees. That was a major breakthrough. Using this I can really help the North with regard to its foremost enemy; the cold. Since its tied to a weirwood tree, I can dump the miracle to the Old God's account. The new settlements will be the first test cases for this as they are all located north of Winterfell where it is coldest.

The best topic was kept for the last; the Wall and the relationship with the Iron Throne.

Most of the lords wanted harsher responses leading up to independence.

"My Lords Please." I tried to calm them down.

"This is not the time. We just finished one war. lets wait few years before starting another."

"Are you telling us to just bow our heads and do nothing after how they have insulted and broke their promises ?" Lord Umber asked me.

"Not at all my friend. I am just saying wait for the correct moment. In the meantime we will have to answer in some way, I agree."

"What do you suggest Harold ?" Ned asked. I felt sorry for the poor guy. He is stuck between his duty to the North and his friendship.

"As for the Order of Knights, let them keep it. It is tied to the faith of the seven. We will start our own order of elite worriers. When I was about 7-8 years old, I travelled to lands east of Yi Ti. There was a secret order of men called Samurai with supernatural skills in fighting. My father saved few of them with his healing skills. They take these kinds of debts very seriously. I can ask few of them to come to the North and start our own elite order of fighters."  
Everyone was listening very attentively.

"Regarding the wall, there are few things we can do. First option is to keep a portion of the tax we send to the Capital. That would send a stronger message. Second option is to take back both The New Gift and The Brandon's Gift back to The North's control. That is lot of Land. It is not like we need more land at the moment. But this option while sending a message to the capital, it doesn't really affect them. Not paying tax can be a cause for the king to raise the banners and march for war. But knowing Lord Arryn, I believe he will go for economic war than a real war."

"What is economic war ?" Asked the Lord Bolton.

I explained them how they can close the ports and prohibit all other kingdoms to trade with us. They can even force the free cities of Essos.

"So in conclusion I believe the second option is the best for the moment and we will wait for an opportunity to strike back. As much as I hate to admit, Targaryens kept the kingdom together. Let's see how well the Baratheons do that."

"But Harold, taking back the lands given to the night's watch shouldn't be considered lightly." Ned voiced his opinion.

"I understand Lord Stark but right now we take care of the wall completely. What does the rest of the kingdoms do except for sending the worse of the society to the wall? We can establish more than few settlements there and direct the income to the night watch and the upkeep of the wall. In a decade, we will not have to spend a single dragon for that."

"When we inform the capital we don't have to say we are taking them back. We will say we are establishing new lordships to support the wall and the tax will go to the Night's Watch. Officially that will be our stance. In reality, the new settlements will pay tax to Winterfell and in turn Winterfell takes care of the Wall. No one needs to know in few years when the tax collection exceeds the expenses of the wall."

"We already have decided to establish 7 new settlements. Where do you plan to get man and women for some more ?" Ned asked.

"There are enough people in Westeros and Essos that will jump in if a chance given to own lands to live and farm Lord Stark." I replied.

There were more concerns and ideas thrown in but at the end the proposal was approved. We drafted a letter informing the capitol about our decision which was then signed by all lords and sent. That concluded the council officially and many left for their own homes including me.

My 'Wife' and 'Son' was waiting for me at Home. I have changed my plans to comeback as my own son and ask a clone to pose as the Harold Gryffindor. Instead I will continue to be the Lord Gryffindor and let my son grow up naturally. And then I will die some time later and come back as my own grandson.  
Unfortunately the things didn't calmed down even after the war as the problems between the Longbridge and the Twins escalated.

 _ **Rowena Rewanclaw**_

We didn't have much man power to send to war when the Robert' rebellion Happened. We had around 100 men-at-arms, a mixer between Spartans and Mallister men. Enrik went to the war with 50 men and fought in the battle of the bells and the battle of the trident.

I didn't really have a lot of time to think of the war. I knew my kin will have no problem there and Liam promised to protect Enrik. When the winter came, we had just finished the Bridge and the Keep. As soon as the winter was gone, all the trouble started with Harrenhal and then the rebellion. I had to take care of everything at the Longbridge on my own.

As soon as the armies marched to war, the attacks, or more like harresments increased. We knew these are from Freys but we had no proof. I wrote to Grant at London and he sent me 100 men to strengthen our men. With that the harassments almost stopped.

With that taken care of, I have focused on other important matters. The small village of 100 families grew and now it has over 2000 men and women. The village is in the south of the bridge and we have planned a new town in the north side. Like all of our towns, we marked where to put different types of buildings and planned residential, commercial and administrative areas separately. The first building we built was the combined Town hall/Hospital/School. It is a large 2 story building. The ground floor will be used for administrative purposes as well as the hospital. Second floor is the school.

The new town is circular allowing expanding to all directions in the future. In the middle, I have planted a Weirwood tree and a small park was planned surrounding the tree. Predicting the huge amount of trade that will pass the town, I have reserved a large area for an open air market. For the moment there are only few other buildings in the new town as I forbid the village people to build huts there. I plan to build Townhouse style buildings for houses.

I have extended the farms to include more types of vegetables and fruit. The winter allowed me to experiment with different types of plans and crops as there was nothing else I can do. I have few large Glasshouses holding many seeds and plants to plant in our new fields.

I have doubled the amount of land used to grow rice and pineapple. I decided not to extend the farmland that grows strawberry as London already produces enough for the moment. I have however added 50 acres to other type of fruit. In a year or so I want to build my own food processing factory. For the moment I use the factory in Plymouth.

The bridge is one of the modern wonders of this world. The river is about 500 feet wide where we built it. Two stone arches support the 40 feet wide bridge. There are two gate houses at both ends of it. Two knights that went to war with Enrik were given the charge of the gate houses with 15 guards each. The new Flag of Mallisters of Longbridge; a silver eagle and a red griffin facing each other in a black field, fly on top of both gate houses.

Longbridge will also have a River port as it is possible to take a boat to Saltpans and reach the Bay of Crabs. I have designed a new type of river boat to use which doesn't really use active magic. As the Boats will be used by smallfolks, I can't use any type of magic that would cause any suspicions. However I can still use many rune clusters to give them an edge over any other boat. There are in fact, two ports; one in the north bank and the other in the south bank.

The new town is in the south bank of the Green Fork. We ignored the Northern part for the moment as we had more than enough in our plate. There were few shops and houses started to pop up in that part. Technically we own nothing there. Things happened that we were not able to ignore the North bank anymore.

 _ **Ned Stark**_

When Harold revealed his powers at the Tower of Joy I was shocked. I recall the letter my father left hinting that Clan Gryffindor is special and I should always trust them. I am glad I did. He saved Lyanna and then hid her and my nephew. It didn't take me much time to discover and understand that the clan is behind the new wealth every noble and small folk enjoy. They are special and important more than one way. Harold is not afraid to voice his honest opinion regardless of consequences, which was proved to be true by his fight with Robert after the Lannisters murdered the royal family as well as his displeasure when I tried to build a Sept for Catalyn. While other lords reprimand him of the way he talked to me, no one supported me in building a Sept. 'Your father will roll in his grave' he told me. At the end I gave up on the idea.

Right after the council meeting at Griffinshore, Catalyn gave birth to my first daughter which I named Sansa. I arranged a feast to celebrate; inviting all of the northern lords as well as some Riverland lords including Hoster Tully. Harold was away in Dorne. Enrik and Rowena Mallister came representing both the Clan Gryffindor and house Mallister.

The feast was going well until both Enrik and Rowena who were talking to my good-father left the great hall abruptly. The curiosity of the guests lasted only for few moments until they continue to drink and eat.

Catalyn and I went to Lord Tully to inquire what happened.

 _ **Enrik Mallister**_

To say Rowena has a temper is like saying the North is cold.

"That insufferable old fool. How dare he !" She was fuming. I have learned at times like these, it's best to let her vent. After about 15 minutes she calmed down a little.

"I need to inform Harold and the others about the idiot's proposal. That old man is a lot stupid than he looks if he thinks it will work or if we obey." He said now calmed down but with a dangerous edge in her voice.

"Don't worry my love. You know neither your cousin nor my brother will keep quiet about this." I said placing a kiss on her hand I was holding.

"I know Enrik. Regardless I think we better thank the Starks for the hospitality and go home."

Ned asked us to stay and discuss about it but we declined politely and left for London the next morning.

* * *

"So the old fool thinks he can just come and install a new lord to reap the fruit of your blood and sweat ?" Chris asked.

We didn't waste time. As soon as we reach Moat Cailin, Rowena asked few of his cousins to meet her for dinner. There she explained them the reason for our sudden departure. Hoster Tully want to grant the lands that lies on the other side of the bridge to create a new lordship. Technically the lands don't belong to us. However since they are only populated because of the bridge, we assumed control.

"Who is supposed to get the land ?" asked Lily.

"Bryndan Tully?" Rowena answered.

"The Blackfish?" Liam asked surprised. "I thought he decided never to marry."

"I was surprised myself." I commented. "I am not sure how the old Tully convinced him."

"Legally it is his right." Lucas added his thoughts.

"True. It's not like we can take the issue to the King. He will favor Hoster Tully just because it's against a member of the Gryffindor clan member." I replied.

"Legal or not, when did that ever stop anyone of the Gryffindor clan? What was Harold's response?" Rowena asked.

"He told me to provide any support you required." Chris answered.

"Very well. In that case, I want 500 Spartans; 100 cavalry and 400 foot soldiers. I will also need few skilled men from either from the Marsh town or Plymouth. Its time we have few good boats for ourselves."

Silence followed Rowena's demands. But no one bat an eye agreeing to them.

 _ **Rowena Revanclaw**_

After the war, we have spread the army among different towns, cities and castles. So without much delay, Chris gave us 100 cavalry right away. Marsh Town and Plymouth was instructed to send 200 Spartans each in addition to men who has skills in building Arrow class boats.

Over the next month, we built 10 Arrow class boats and equipped them. A battle was inevitable. Tully lord sent ravens to all river lords informing of the new Lordship. I sent a reply simply said 'Come and Take it if you dare.'

"Are you worried ?" Enrik asked.

We were observing the training yard where the veteran Spartans training new recruits. To my surprise there were many eager to fight for us. Loyalty is hard earned but worth every effort spent on achieving it. Many thought I was crazy for how I treated the small-folks. Even Enrik was skeptical.

Hospital and a school was the first we built after our keep. Children who attend the school received a good lunch for free. That was a good reason to attend. With the hospital, no more people died due to small accidents, snake bites or simple infection. With the new farming methods, farmers harvested much more than they used to. These actions resulted in a loyalty much stronger than what you get by being cruel.

"No. I know we can win. But I am not sure where this would end." I said with letting go of a sigh I was holding. Enrik put his arm around me and pulled me closer.

"Do you have to go to the battle yourself Rowena ?"

We have been arguing about this for days. He is after all a man raised in this primitive society. Even though he tries his best not to be a sexist and aware that my skills in fighting far beyond his own, he still do not like to see me go to war.

"Enrik you know I can…"

"I know you can take care of yourself love. Gods ! you probably can battle the whole army yourself and win. But you are my wife. It is the duty of a man to protect his women. I cant help it. What the term you use ? Hard Coded….. it is hard coded into every man."

"I know love. But I am a Gryffindor. I can't stay home and wait."

He just sighed and gave in.

"I know I have asked you to wait for children. I did not want to have kids as soon as we get married. But I think we can start now." I said and saw Enrik's face lightened up.

"Really ? Are you sure ?"

"I am. When this mess is all over we can start if my Lord wishes."

"I wish nothing more my Lady. Would you like to practice until then ?"

"If my Lord Insist."

So there ended our observation of the training yard. I did a different training that evening, a departure from my usual staff straining.

Few days later we heard from our spies that the army of Riverrun is marching. Something we were afraid of but expected. According to our spy in their army, there are about 5000 men marching. So we made preparations. We are planning to meet them near the open lands of Oldstones. Unfortunately that plan had to be altered as another spy sent us a warning.

"What is it Rowena?" Enrik asked seeing I was ashen faced once I read the letter.

"Desperate situations and desperate bedmates. Looks like Tullys and Freys buried their hate for each other."

"What ?"

"As our spy found out, Frey's are planning to attack while we are away fighting the Tully men."

"What are we going to do ? we cant fight both Frey and Tully men at the same time."

"We don't have to Enrik. Thankfully we found out well in advance. We can make a preemptive attack on Frey and then march to meet Tully army."

"We can't attack without a cause Rowena. We don't have any proof."

"Don't worry Enrik. We will have evidence. Look at these. These are letters exchanged between the Hoster Tully and that weasel." I said showing the evidence my spy found.

"Still they can say they never really plan to attack."

"Well power conquer all Enrik. If we manage to defeat both Frey and Tully men, we will dictate the terms of a peace treaty. It wouldn't really matter if we have just cause or not."

We decided to attack the Twin on the next day at night. Thankfully 10 of my kin were at Longbridge disguised as common soldiers. The plan is to blow the bridge using our Arrow boats' missiles and then attacking the East keep using the same method. This way the two keeps will be completely on their own.  
A quick letter to our East fleet resulted in the arrival of 10 more Arrow boats that will be used to transport troops. Next day as planned we transported our troops close to the Twins. Then the boats positioned themselves out of reach of archers if they attacked; but close enough for the missiles to attack.

100 men with one of my kin leading them are waiting near the East keep. Their task will be to attack the Frey men fleeing the crumbling East keep when missiles succeed in their task. But for the West keep we cant do that as it holds all the Frey family and the innocent servants. Attacking there with missiles will result in deaths of many women and children.

Because of that we will have to break the door and do this the usual way. We do not have time for a usual siege. That is the reason we were planning to use our magic. Unlike Harold, its not easy for us to direct our magic without a wand. While the staff is capable of a Bombarda spell, the power output of the staff is not enough to break the wall and the gate. Because of this, I am planning to cast with the help of 6 of my kin.

As soon as we arrived at the location, we drew the ritual circle that will help transferring the magic of my kin to me temporary as long as they are in the ritual circle. It took only 15 minutes for us to prepare for the ritual. Once we are ready inside the circle, we start chanting and I felt the power flow into me. This is extremely dangerous but luckily for us we are clones of the same person. That makes our magic compatible with each other to the fullest extent.

Once I felt I have enough power, I pointed my staff at the castle gate and shouted 'Bombarda Maxima.' A brilliant steak of red originated from the staff tip travelled to the gate and obliterated it instantly. That was the signal for the Boats to attack on the bridge.

Usually the missiles on the boats are not strong enough to destroy a castle wall. This instant however we are pointing the collective fire power at the support beams of the bridge. About a minute later we saw a red spark shot into the sky. That was the signal from my kin who was leading the boat to signal that the attack on the bridge was successful.

We the spell cannot travel far, we had to go dangerously close to the keep while most of our men were further away. With the spell, the notice-me-not ward was broken and we were vulnerable to the archers. Thankfully our men were not far away. Before the defenders try to organize themselves our men were inside the keep and defeated whatever the weak force they had.

"Ahh Lord Frey, apologize for waking you up. We need to talk." Enrik addressed the lord Frey mockingly.

Enrik instructed our men to gather all of Frey family down to the youngest infant and take them with us to Longbridge. They will be held there for the moment. Once the West keep is empty of any life and anything valuable, I unleashed the other spell that the staff is well capable of casting; Fiendfyre. Thankfully the curse required only the mental will to control it. Soon enough there was nothing left of the keep. Sometime later the same treatment was given to the East keep. By then our men had slaughtered the Frey army stationed at the keep. When the armies holding the keep saw the destruction of the West keep, they fled out of fear and our men were there waiting.

Destruction of the two keeps was not really necessary but both Enrik I thought this will be an opportunity to send a warning to anyone who would dare to threaten us.

Another day later, we started to march to meet the Tully army. We left 200 men behind for protect our lands against any threat. Lord Mallister, Enrik's brother already sent 500 men to Longbridge as a reserve force. They will be here in a day.

1000 men including 8 of my kin left to face 5000 Tully men.

The battle, if you call it that was quick and devastating; devastating for the enemy that is. May be a quarter of Tully men were experienced soldiers. Others were fresh levies. We had 200 former unsullied and men trained by them. On top of that our soldiers are equipped with rune enforced armor. If that's not advantages enough, we had exploding arrows that wreaked havoc on the cavalry of the enemy.

Enrik was told about the magic that we can wield little while ago. With that, I have made him better physically and mentally. Now he is a beast in the battle field. He prefers a bastard sword and regardless of my effort, cant swing the staff to save his life. But the sword though, it was beautiful to watch him fighting.

At the end we had seven of our men dead and more than ¾ of enemies dead. The rest fled. Enrik personally slew the Blackfish.

Once that is all over, our entire fleet of Arrow boats departed for the next destination; Riverrun. Once there we attacked the castle, well they are more like warning shots really. The missiles are not strong enough to break the walls. However the draw bridge was destroyed completely. And then we all went home.

Enrik and I had discussed as to what we should do with the Frey once they are dealt with. We came to the conclusion that all men over 14 years old should be given the choice of death or wall. All women and children younger than 14 can go to any of their relatives with a portion of the gold we took from the twin. We decided we will be dividing half of the money among them and we will be keeping a half.

We have delayed the processing the Frey brood as I received a message from Winterfell. Lord Stark is coming for a visit. My good-brother Lord Mallister, My brother Lord Revanclaw and finally Harold was already there. Surprising everyone, Lord Arryn, the hand of the king arrived without a warning.

Suddenly it became a peace conference. So we all sat to discuss what to do next. Lord Arryn started with an accusation.

"Lord Mallister you have attacked your Liege Lord."

"I have not." Enrik Replied. "I only defended myself."

"What about the Twins ?" Lord Stark asked. "You have attacked them without a provocation"

"Ahh that's where you are wrong Lord Stark." Enrik replied presenting the letters we have found.

"These are letters exchanged between Lord Frey and that opportunistic bastard Tully."

"He is your liege lord ! mind your words !" shouted Catelyn Tully who accompanied lord stark.

"Your father is an opportunistic cunt." I shouted back shocking everyone.

"When your former betrothed and late good-father was killed by the mad king what did your father do? He forced Lord Stark to marry you. That was not enough for the old fart. He then forced lord Arryn to marry your sister. Only then he offered to help with the rebellion."

No one said anything after that.

"Anyway my lords, as you can see from those letters, Lord Tully and Frey were plotting to destroy us. So we had no other choice."

"Very well. But still the whole mess started when you took over lands that did not belong to you." Lord Arryn commented.

"Those lands were made valuable because of the bridge we build. We will be paying loans we took to build it for next 20 years. And do you really think we would bow our head when lord Tully gave them to someone else?"

"Be that as may, that is still doesn't belong to you. You cant take those lands by force."

"Why not ?" I asked Lord Arryn.

"Excuse me ?"

"I asked why not? Why can't we take that land by force? After all didn't we dethrone a dynasty by force and sat someone else on the throne?"

That shut up the old man for a good minute.

"We should talk about what we can do now to resolve this my Lords." Ned Stark broke the silence.

"We offer to cease the attacks against Lord Tully and recall our forces under one condition." Enrik replied.

"We want dominion over all Rivelands north of Longbridge which are not governed by the SeaGuard."

"Preposterous !" Catalyn Tully raised her voice again.

"That is not negotiable. All Frey men over 14 years old can take the black. All other Frey man and women, both base-born and true-born will be given a portion of the gold we found at twin. We plan to distribute half of the wealth. They can leave wherever they want."

"You can't possibly expect…." The harpy started again.

"Or else, we will burn the Riverrun and any other stand with them like we did the Twins."

"You can't Think the North and the Vale will stay idle."

"They won't ?" I asked mocking her.

"I will not raise a finger against my blood." Harold spoke for the first time. "As my liege lord, Lord Stark can order me not get involved and I will obey. If he orders me to raise banners to fight my kin I will not follow that order. Lord Stark will forever loose the respect the North has for him if he gets involved in this."

"Besides think of the precedence it sets. You are saying it's ok for outsiders to get involved in the internal matters of a kingdom. It's like saying its ok for me to help mountain clans of the Vale because they are First men and followers of Old Gods." Harold finished with the subtle threat to Lord Arryn.

Well what can anyone say after that?

* * *

AN - Thanks for the reviews and PMs. Sorry for the delay.


	15. Chapter 15 - Madrid, Lisban and Ironborn

AN - I dont own anything.

 **Chapter 15**

 **Cedric Gryffindor**

The years following the inauguration of the new city were plenty eventful. It was not a surprise though. We expect that. After all, we had Stepstones to deal with.

We started with three warships but knew it was not going to be enough. Unfortunately, that's all we have until Plymouth build our order of 7 more. I have also sent Fredrick Glover to buy 700 unsullied and then to take them to Griffin Island. I hope that within a year they will be able to integrate to Westeros society without much trouble.

The first year spent on planning the city and the rest of the lands. The new city Madrid will be built on the banks of the new river we have created. A bridge was built to connect the two halves of the city. The northern half has more commercial establishments than residential. The southern half is the complete opposite. I have imposed strict guidelines on permanent buildings in the city. If anyone wishes to build anything, they need the plans to be approved by the city administration. The city also provides a free service of architectures anyone can use.

The city has many big and small public spaces. I have planned for many parks and public squares. Since the Dorne is dry and warm, the parks can provide shade and cooler winds. The public squares are built with water fountains to cool off the atmosphere. The parks are full of Weirwood trees. Greenmen of the God's Eye promised to provide as much as saplings we need. The magical tree can grow well even in the sandy Dorne.

Initially, we planned to plant coconut trees but later decided not to. Lisbon is well suited for that and they can't grow anything else. 50% of our arable lands will be reserved for grapes. In two years we will start producing 'Madrid Gold' the new type of wine that will rival Abor Gold. The mountainous areas we own in the south will be reserved for Rice and other vegetables. WE have decided not to grow citrus fruit and olive as they are grown in other parts of the Dorne. We can simply buy them. However, we plan to grow some exotic fruits and vegetable that is not suited in the North or Riverlands.

To the west of Madrid lays the lands belong to Ghost Hill ruled by house Toland. We had to come to an agreement with them as 2 of the rivers we created are originated from the Hills belong to them. They will be benefitting from the new rivers as well. We will also teach them how to grow rice. In return, we will have the first right to their orange and olive harvest.

At the end of the first year, we had a nice little town that is growing astonishing fast rate. There were many men and some women arrived as there was plenty of work. We arrived here with 300 Spartans and 700 small-folks. After a year, the budding city had close to 3000 men and women. Thankfully the 700 Spartans in training will arrive soon. Otherwise, it is getting harder to keep peace with the increasing population.

At the end of the second year, we had our first Grape harvest and made our first batch of Madrid Gold. These need to be aged in Oak barrels for three months. The Bear Island will get a new source of income exporting Oak barrels. Lisbon's glass factory is making the wine bottles. Now they are not just wine bottles. They are pieces of art. The different sizes and types of bottles are designed with different colors and embedded designs. The Madrid Gold is going to be more expensive than Abor Gold and will only be sold in bottles. The bottles come in three sizes; 0.5, 1, 1.5 liters. There will be different flavors by combining the wine with fruit flavors to spices.

A Ton of grapes can make 500 liters of wine. We have used 10 acres of land to grow grapes. As this is the first harvest, we only managed to produce 2 tons per acre. So we had about 10000 liters of wine. First, we made 20,000 half liter bottles. We produced 5 different flavors. And then we send wine bottle cases – each containing one bottle of each flavor – To nobles and wealthy families. Depending on the response we hoped to plan for the next year. At the end of 5th year, we had 50 acres growing grapes and an amazing yield of 7 tons per acre. Even with the increased production, we could not match the demand.

With regards to the Stepstones, we knew that we can't exactly conquer the islands. There are many who claims the islands belong to them. We can't go to war with all. Instead, we started eradicating the pirates. Once we received the 7 new ships and the new Spartans arrived, we started to increase the patrols in the southern narrow sea. This resulted in encountering many pirates' ships. None of them sailed again. Slowly the pirate problem in the Stepstones became a thing in the past.

Because of the islands, there are only 5 passes exist between the summer sea and the Narrow sea. Of those 5, only 3 are wide and deep enough for ships to pass. The best one is between the Dorne and one of the islands. We used our magic to close the other passes by raising land mass or extending the landmass of the island, effectively making the one passing Madrid is the only viable ship line.

Now, every ship that uses the passageway need to pay a tax, not an outrageous one, but still its enough to make us very rich. Ships of the North, the Dorne and Seaguard are the only exceptions.

I finally got around to start building my own Lake Palace. I changed my mind about creating a replica of the Taj Lake Palace of India. Instead, I used it as a template and changed some details such as removing the swimming pool. If I need to swim, I can just jump into the lake as the water is clear and clean. Once finished, the palace will have 50 suits including the Lord's suit. I am hoping that I can finish it within 5 years. The only way to reach the palace is by a boat, adding another layer of protection. I have commissioned 5 custom made ferries for that task.

 **Charles Gryffindor**

It took us 6 months to create a proper harbor and a port. In the meantime, we have started building a lighthouse to rival the Hightower. The new lighthouse is going to be 900 feet tall once finished, which will be taller than the Hightower. The highest 100 feet will be a statue of a Griffin. This is going to be the most wondrous creation of the Gryffindor clan. We estimated that it will take 10-12 years to finish it. Once completed, the building will be the most modern structure in the world. We will be using concrete and steel. We plan to establish a university there and name it Cambridge. The tower will also house the city administration and will be used as accommodation for the VIP.

The glass factory we established is the largest factory we have built so far. With the increasing demand, we couldn't simply supply with manual production. Hence, in the factory, we have two parts, one part where glass workers create whatever the glass work by hand. The other part where few has access to is our real factory. Using runes and animation charms we replicated a real glass factory from the old world. The machinery here works on magic rather than the electricity. With this, we can produce as much as glass bottles needed.

We have planted coconut trees as soon as we arrived here. it takes 6-10 years for the tree to start producing fruit and 15-20 years to reach the peak production. We have helped it with little of magic so that we will see the tree bear fruit in 3 years and peak production reached in 5 years.

Thanks to its magic, Weirwood trees can grow without an issue in this dry sandy area. Of course, we had to use a bit of magic initially but once rooted properly it can take care of itself. Coconut trees and Weirwood trees helped to cool the dry and warm climate. We have planted 500 coconut trees and 100 Weirwood trees initially. Five years after we first arrived we had about 2000 coconut trees that provide us with 100,000-150,000 coconuts per year. The number of Weirwood trees increased to over 1000. Many small-folks plant them in their gardens as it cooled the air and its shade is unnaturally cool. Many believed the tree has magical powers and many converted to the old gods.

With the help and blessings of other lords, we have also started to build better roads. This will help everyone in Dorne as it allows faster delivery of goods.

We are able to do all these because of the gold deposits we found on Occasus. Otherwise, we will not be able to undertake all these projects at once.

The miraculous feats that we credited the old Gods did not go unnoticed by the Septons and the maesters. The citadel was trying to get their hand on our invention for a long time. Over the years each and every maester of the North either adapted and signed a magical contract or was sent back the citadel. Our own settlements never had maesters, to begin with. They have complained to the king and the hand of the king but there is nothing they can do about it. Ordering a lord or a trade guild to reveal secrets will not be received well.

If that is not insulting enough to the learned men of Westeros, even the nobles in the south started to reject maesters as they realized our Scholars are better than them. Few of the minor lords and landed knights already requested and received scholars from Oxford.

With our influence follows the Weirwood tree and the old Gods.

We have been giving the credit of many unusual feats to the old gods. Many people already converted to the old gods wherever we went. Starry Sept, the previous headquarters of the faith of the Seven is in Oldtown, not too far from Lisbon. It might not be the main sept anymore but still, it held a lot of influence.

The first spot of trouble came when they wanted to build a sept in Lisbon. I might dislike the faith but I couldn't outright ban it especially in the south. However, I drew the line when they want me to build it with my own money. If they want a sept, they should build themselves paying from their own pockets. Then they were complaining that the location I gave was not prominent enough. The Godswood of Lisbon was located on the only hill in the city, thus they felt that their sept being on a lower ground was an insult.

I had lost my patience with them by then and told them to go fly a kite.

That was just the beginning. I had to interfere and involve many times to make sure they wouldn't force people to follow them.

One of the main objectives of establishing a naval base at Lisbon is to challenge the Redwyne power in the Summer sea and the sunset sea. Because of that, we have been getting a fair share of new ships. We now have a Poseidon class flagship, Sea Horse class carrier ship with 40 Arrow class boats and 30 Ares class warships. We often conduct joint exercises with the fleet at Madrid.

 **Kellan Ravenclaw – Western Fleet Commander**

Life was good. There were few bumps in the road like Robert's rebellion and then Rowena's. But overall I am happy and content. I used to be the De-facto Lord of Marsh Town but later it was given to Liam who married a Reed daughter. The naval Command has moved to Cape Kraken with the blessings of Lord Stark and Lord Flint. I married a Flint and given the lordship of the new Port Town which was named 'Kraken Port.' My son was born just before the end of Robert's Rebellion. I named him Edward. Two years later my lady wife gave me twins; a son and a daughter whom I named Jasper and Esme.

One day suddenly I felt like someone put his hand in my body and squeezing my heart. I knew then what was happening. As we are all connected as clones, this means one of my kin just died. Unfortunately, we had no way of knowing what happened and who died. I had nothing else but to wait for any news. A few seconds later, a patronas arrived.

"Iron born attacked Sea Guard. They have been living there for years. They attacked from inside. Lord Mallister and Family were captured as well as Enrik and Rowena. The port and ships were burnt. Sea Guard has fallen. Tell Harry I am sorry."

Nathan. The newest member of our clone brothers died. He was born only a few months ago. Rage and Sadness were warring inside me. The idiot must have used most of his magic to send the message. Patronas without a wand takes almost our entire magical core. He must not have any left to fight with. I was worried about Rowena. She was pregnant and when a witch is pregnant, almost all her magic is not available for her. Rowena is born/created as a man and then changed the gender. This is the reason why it takes so much magic when she is pregnant. A lot of magic is needed to maintain a womb with a life inside.

After my shock worn out, I let a scream of rage escape and then started to send falcons to many lords along the coast of sunset sea to warn them. I sent messages to as many as I can. Hoping they will send messages to others.


	16. Chapter 16 - The new Lord Paramount

**AN - I own nothing.**

 **Harold Gryffindor**

Longbridge became the host to another war council. About a week after the attack on Sea Guard many of my kin arrived to plan for what to do next. I was terrified. They had Rowena.

"Our first priority is to win back Sea Guard and Rescue Rowena, Enrik and his family." Harold set the priority. I was glad he is here.

"We can't use military force. They will start killing Mallisters if we do." Kellan commented.

"We will need to infiltrate and I will have to do that myself. I want someone who knows the in and out of that castle." I told the gathered.

"I know exactly who to call. He grew up there." One of the Mallister Knights answered. He was the highest ranking military person at Longbridge.

"I also want 5 of our brothers. That will be enough for a rescue mission. Once we have them of the castle, then we can attack. We will open the gates from inside."

"What then ?" Chris Asked. "What will we do after that ?"

"Then we will wait." Harold replied.

"What ?" Chris was shocked. "Wait? After what they have done? They killed Nathan !" He shouted.

"He was my blood too Chris. I didn't say we would do anything. We will wait for the right moment."

"Sorry Harold." Chris said little ashamed of his outburst.

"The king has called banners. If it was just Sea Guard, he would stay idle. But with the burning of Lannisport and the fleet, he can't."

"Will the Northern Lords answer the call ?" The Mallister knight asked.

"Yes, but the majority of the force will be used to protect the settlements in the western shore. Rest will be sent."

"Robert will not be happy."

"He can take it or leave it."

"How is our naval strength Kellan ?"

"My fleet is ready. Ships from Lisbon are on the way."

"Very well. We will be marching for Sea Guard in two days. Position the fleet by then so that no one can escape by the sea." Harold instructed.

Two days later 2000 of our men marched for war.

How is it that we can't go more than a year or two until the next battle comes up ? This is the third in the last five years. But there is a difference this time. They killed one of my kin. My flesh and blood. One of the unfortunate side effects of the cloning is that with each and every clone and I will feel it when one of us dies. That is not a nice feeling. I was calm outside but inside I was boiling. The ironborns have sealed their fate. But I am not about to be a typical Gryffindor about it.

With 2000 of our men, we marched to Seaguard to rescue the Mallisters and to kill all the ironborns.

Their plan is good. If they have the Mallisters including Enrik, there is nothing we can do. We can't do anything to jeopardize their lives. But what they have not accounted for is that we are not just any men.

We camped just out of their arrow's range. While the others set camp, few of my kin and I together with a Mallister Knight got ready for the infiltration. The Knight told us about an abandoned tunnel that was used to carry the water out. But that was collapsed many decades ago and blocked. But with our magic, I was hoping to get through it.

The tunnel was tiny. And it took us a while to get through. Clearing of the tunnel was easy.

One of the exits was very close to the dungeons where we expect they were holding the Mallisters. Thanks to disillusion charm, we were able to sneak in and quickly dispose the guards.

We have modified our initial plans. Initially, we wanted the hostages removed before the battle began. We realized that is going to be bit difficult and if caught, we will lose the whole element of surprise.

"Ok I will take care of things here. You all go and continue with the plan." I instructed them.

Despite knowing I am immortal and that I can wipe out thousands in a second, they were reluctant to leave me alone to protect the hostages on my own.

"I will be fine. Go." I had to force them to leave.

Within 15 minutes the signal was sent; a cannon blast charm. One of the spells suited for the staves. It only emulates a cannon blast.

Our men who were ready for the signal attacked suddenly to the confusion to the defending ironborns. To their shock, the gates opened as we have planned. As expected a group of ironborns came to get the hostages. I banged my staff on the floor and shouted;

"You shall not pass !"

Well, you can't expect the ironborns to understand the significance so they just attacked.

Meanwhile, our army entered the castle and was killing the ironborns one by one. It was a short battle. Soon there were only a few pockets of resistance remained who had holed themselves in varies corners. They will be dealt with soon enough.

The most notable kill was Rodrik Greyjoy, the son of Balon Greyjoy. He was killed by Chris. I was a bit disappointed though. I wanted to kill that scum in front of his father.

The North did not face any attack from Ironborns so far. The rest of the Riverlands was safe too. The biggest shock was the Lannisport. The Ironborns destroyed the fleet and burned the port. The reach was not safe either. Fleets of Shield Islands, Old town and Abor were destroyed in Robert's rebellion and they haven't yet fully recovered. While there was nothing as significant as Lannisport, few coastal settlements were attacked.

It took some time but the king raised an army and marched to Lannisport. And so did us.

The king called the Lords and Notable knight for a war council. From the North, Lords Stark, Bolton and I attended.

The major point to discuss was about the number of ships we have in our disposal. Royal fleet, Redwyne fleet and Oldtown fleet had not recovered from the last war yet. Ironborns assumed to have 400-500 ships altogether. The only notable fleet we had was ours and we didn't have half their numbers.

"The numbers will only matter for the inferior ships that you have." I addressed the Lords after watching them arguing about numbers.

"We won both in the land and the sea last time with little resources. We can do the same again."

"And what would you demand in return for your service Lord Gryffindor." The king asked knowing that my offer wouldn't come free.

"I will defeat the Iron fleet on my own. I will provide our superior siege engines and 3000 of our Spartans. Our Spartans are as good as if not better than any of your knights."

"Exile each and every noble house of the Iron Islands, Heads of every Greyjoy man of age and name me the Lord Paramount of Iron Islands and Sunset Sea."

Even Ned had his mouth hanging open. I allowed many lords and the king to shout for a couple of minutes.

"You have until tomorrow mid-day to decide. If you do not formally name me the Lord Paramount of the Iron Islands and the Sunset Sea by mid-day tomorrow, I will leave with my men and ships." I said leaving the tent.

Kellan Ravenclaw

The king had no other choice. He could either agree to Harold's demands or wait years until they build a big enough navy. So the next day he publically named Harold the new Lord Paramount of Iron Island and the Sunset Sea. Everyone thought Harold only wanted the Lord paramountship as there was nothing valuable on Iron Islands. There are no trees and the arable lands are few and far in between. All it had was some mines.

What no one knew is that the islands are very rich in minerals. They are deep in the lands and hidden but with our magic, we can make them approachable. We can even use a little magic to make the lands good for farming again.

We fought few battles in the Sea and came out victorious each time. And we managed to capture all Greyjoy brothers except Balon.

With the iron fleet defeated and destroyed, combined Royal forces landed at different islands and one by one each keep, castle and town were conquered.

We agreed beforehand that the king and his lords can take anything of value from the Iron Islands. We do not need any of it. All the valuables in the ships that we captured also went to Royal Treasury. We didn't care though. It's not like we lack gold with the mines of Occasus.

The nobles of Iron Islands were gathered after the battle. Not many survive the battles but there were children and women. We were not completely heartless. Harold agreed to provide them enough gold to restart their lives and to take them anywhere they want in Essos. As they are born sailors if they truly wish they can find good jobs and have a good life.

There were quite a few orphans, both high and low born. Harold agreed to take care of them.

At the end, only two Greyjoy's were left alive. They were lucky that they were a girl and a child. They Greyjoy name will not continue though. The only male child left, Theon greyjoy's life was spared on the condition he will be raised by the brothers of the Night Watch. He will be sworn as a member of Night Watch as soon as he is of Age. If he decided to go against the order, he will be killed.

Asha Greyjoy, the daughter of Balon will join the Silent Sisters.

As for the Balon and his brothers, well Harold executed them publically.

Lannister Lord must have felt that the show was truly stolen by the house of Gryffindor. So he arranged a tourney after the war. Maybe to assert that they are still the richest house of Westeros, Lannisters didn't spare any expense. The feasts were magnificent and the tourney was great. Many knights from all over the seven kingdoms attended. The event will be used to formally declare Harold as the new Lord Paramount of the Iron Islands. A title that did not gain easily as planned.

The king agreed to Harold's conditions but had his own conditions we should meet. First, the king demanded that the North will not have any share of the spoils of the war. The treasure and the ships of the iron fleet will belong to the crown. Second, Harold will swear fealty to the Iron Throne formally. Third, we will build 25 ships at a much-discounted rate for the Lannisters to replace their lost fleet.

We agreed to all the conditions.

Since Harold is already sworn fealty to the Starks, Lord Stark first released Harold of his oath. Then Chris was declared and sworn as the new Lord of London and Moat Cailin. After that, the king announced Harold as the new lord of Iron Island and in return Harold swore fealty to Robert.

Harold Gryffindor

Right after I became the newest high lord, I left with the majority of my people to the Iron Islands.

I have already decided to move the 'capital' of the Iron Island to Harlaw. The Ten Towers, the seat of power of the Harlaws was relatively undamaged. I liked the eccentricity of the castle with its 10 mismatching towers. While it will need a lot of changes to get it to my approved state, its good enough for the moment.

As the new high Lord of the Iron Islands, I will rule the island of Harlaw. The other 6 island will be divided and 20 new noble houses will be created to rule them. 10 of the houses will be for my own cloned kin and the rest was given for few houses of the North.

For a short period of time, most of my kin moved to iron islands as the workload is tremendous. Out first task is to plant Weirwood trees. Thousands of trees were planted that will be the excuse of miracles caused by our magic. Two weeks after the trees were planted; we started installing the climate and other wards using the trees as anchors. The lands will transform slowly over the next few years and become arable once again.

The mines were something we could improve right away. We were able to improve the safety of the mine and made them more efficient.

We established a shipyard at the Pike and ordered to build 50 Long-range trade ships. With born sailors of Iron Islands, I will not have trouble finding crews for the ships. With new ships I plan to increase the trade with the Far East which will make us richer than anyone.

Everything was not rainbows and the sunshine. There were enough troublemakers who wanted to go back to the old ways. Because of this, the Islands were heavily militarized for the first few years. The majority accepted the new regime as the food and coin became plentiful with new job opportunities. We established schools to educate and influence the young generation. I hope in a decade things will be calm enough to reduce the armed forces employed.

Our schools became a huge success. We have 3 major universities; Oxford in London, Cambridge in Lisbon and Harvard in Longbridge. We started a new one in Harlow which is yet to be named. The nobles didn't like their sons and daughters educated in the same room as the commoners. Hence we have created a different program for them. We accept boys and girls once they passed their 11th birthday. The girls will complete their education in two years. The boys will go on for another 2 years completing their education in 4 years. Recently we started an exchange program with other universities. The boys will have the opportunity to study in other universities for a period of one year. It has become very popular among the young nobles and sons of rich families.

Aluminium is one of the most common elements found in my old earth. In this world, however, it is unknown. Iron Islands have Bauxite ore plentiful that is used to produce Aluminium. I am hoping to boost the economy of the island with that. We will produce cans that can preserve foodstuff. Sooner than later, this world is going to be introduced to canned food.

* * *

 **298 AL – 9 years after the Greyjoy Rebellion – William Gryffindor, heir apparent of Iron Islands**

I was 'born' a year before the Robert's Rebellion and will turn 18 years old this year. I have two sisters who are 16 and 15 years old respectively. I was 9 years old when the Greyjoy rebellion happened and had to be just an observer from the command ship. But after the war, I helped in rebuilding the islands. I might physically look like a child but I can still power the wards and carve runes wherever needed.

We had our own university established at the Ten Towers Castle. My 'Father' decided to build a small castle for himself and left the Ten towers for the new university. The new castle design was influenced by the Balmoral castle of the British Royal family of our old world. We named it Balmoral to honor the original.

My father named the university and the new capital city 'Ironbay.' The University was attended by Jon Targaryen who is known by the name of Jon Gryffindor, son of Orian Gryffindor. Robb Stark attended for a year and became great friends with me and Jon not knowing who Jon is really is.

Iron Islands have changed dramatically in the past 9 years. The islands collectively have 100 trade ships that trade as far as Yi Ti. Additionally, we have 50 warships. At any point, only 10 of them are in active service. Ironborns slowly transformed from Raiders to traders.

Fishing is another major industry for the islands. With the invention of Aluminium, we produce the canned fish that is sold in many parts of the world. We sell cans to Longbridge and London so they can sell canned fruit.

The lands are arable again and we can grow 50% of our food requirement. The rest is imported from Riverlands and the North. Small forests are grown and have strict rules placed to protect them. Mushroom is another home industry introduced and we have begun to export them last year.

We now have around 5000 weirwood trees including the one called the mother tree. We have not planted that tree. It is on a small island off the island of Great Wyk. The tree grew up so fast that now the tree is about 50 feet in diameter. Many who follow the old Gods come to the island on pilgrimage. With the wide spread of the trees and their 'miracles,' there were not much left who still followed the Drowned God.

My father heard from his spy network that the king is considering a marriage between the crown and Starks. My father who is looking forward to the day the king dies could not let it happen. So he planned a preemptive strike.

* * *

 **First Lords council of AL 298 – Domeric Bolton**

The name Bolton carried a certain level of mistrust, disgust and fear. Many believed that we continued the practice of flaying men. My father for some reason didn't try to correct the misconception. My fellow students at Oxford first didn't accept me comepletely. However I managed to change their minds little by little. I have become friends with Robb Stark who is a year younger than me. usually a noble spend 4 years in the university but I have extended my studies at the invitation of Lord Gryffindor of Ironbay.

He had a discussion with me and my father who came to London for my graduation. He told us that I am gifted by old gods and that I have a passive magical core. While I may not be able to do all what his kin do, there are certain magical studies I can dabble into. However the offer came with a condition. I have to take a magical blood oath to never reveal what I learn to anyone who is not of Gryffindor clan or a child of mine. Even my father is not allowed to know. My father was not happy about that but the advantages overweight that little inconvenience.

I have finished my extra two years of magical studies. I was not the only one who was offered this opportunity. Many others including Robb Stark is learning the magical arts. Robb unlike me has an active magical core. He is supposed to study 4 years. I was sent to Cambridge for my studies and Robb is at IronBay.

After my studies, I have been trying to improve the lives of the people who are under our banner. I have created weather and climate wards for farmlands and settlements. Unfortunately I am unable to power them. Someone from Gryffindor clan usually come once I have created 10-15 wards to power them. We have requested to create a small harbor town at the mouth of Weeping Water River from Lord Stark. With his permission I have started building the town and commissioned 5 trade ships that I have designed myself. The harbor is not wide or deep enough for a large ship. My ship is 70 feet long with 3 Mast and includes many advantages of a typical Gryffindor ship. I plan to trade with the Westeros Ports up to Kings Landing as well as Bravos, Pentos and Lorath.

I have convinced my father of importance of changing the mindset of lords and smallfolks. I manage to convince him to renovate the castle and update it with large windows and glass panels. I told him that I will not raise my children in this castle if it doesn't change. It wasn't easy to make the castle light and airy. There is a reason why it is called Dreadfort. I assume it will take few years to completely change it.

I have been attending the Lords' councils since I returned from my studies. I was surprised to see Lord Harold Gryffindor there as he stopped attending since he became the Lord of the Iron Islands.

* * *

 **Harold Gryffindor**

I knew I had to act when I heard that the king mentioned a marriage between his son and Sansa Stark. I am waiting for the day he dies to make Iron Islands and North independent of Iron Throne. If he ties the next king to Starks, that is going to be very difficult. Having formed a plan, I have decided to attend the Lords council. The venue for the council was London.

"Harold. Its great to see you after a long time." Ned was genuinely happy to see me at Moat Cailin.

"Its good to see you too Ned. Actually I have come to meet you. I have few things to talk to you about. Shall we take this somewhere little private ?"

He nodded and followed me the Lord's Solar, which is now used by Chris.

"What do you like to discuss Harold ?" Ned asked once settled in.

"Its about our children Ned. They are of the age we should think of arranging marriages."

"Arranging marriages ? That's not something I thought you would ever bring up Harold. I remember Brandon telling me that your clan doesn't do the arranged marriages."

"Well we do not force our children to marry someone they do not like but we try to guide them towards whoever we think is suitable. But at the end its their decision."

"Very well what do you have in mind ?"

"I hope you do not take offence for what I am about to say and listen without interrupting. When you married your wife a southerner, no lord of the north was happy about it. I hope you consider marriages for your children houses that follow the old gods."

"I understand what you are saying Harold and I agree. I know you already have plans so go on with it."

"I would like to propose Domeric Bolton for your Daughter Sansa. I have taught the lad for the past two years myself and I can guarantee he is as honorable as you are Ned. He is nothing like his father. He even managed to convince Roose to loosen up. The marriage will tie the two houses together and centuries old feud will be over. Domeric's mother is a Ryswell and his aunt is married to house Dustin. You are kind of rewarding three houses with one marriage."

"The proposal has its merits, I have to admit."

"For Robb I would like to propose my younger daughter who is only a year younger than him. I am planning to propose my elder daughter to Harrion Karstark."

"I am more than happy to accept your daughter for my son. I know both my father and brother wanted to tie our houses together."

"For Arya, I don't think she will be happy in the north. I think she will be happier in Dorne where women are treated better and have more freedom. Doran Martel has a son closer to her age. He is studying at IronBay at the moment. I have mentioned this to Doran few months back and he is agreeable to the idea."

"I agree that Arya will be happier in Dorne but I am not sure how to convince her about marriage."

"Its not like she wil get married anytime soon. Trystan can be very charming when he wants to. I am sure he will be able to win her over. She can come to IronBay for a year to study and learn how to weild a sword. We recently employed a sword master from Bravos. He is a master of water dancing style that would suit her best."

"I will agree to that. I would however, like to have a discussion with Doran first."

"Oberyn is on his way to IronBay and I am sure he can talk with you on behalf of his brother."

I am done. I have arranged marriages for 3 eldest stark children. Bran and Rickon are too young for King's daughter. I have successfully blocked the possibility of a marriage between the royal family and Starks.

At the end of the council, betrothals between Robb stark and Luna Gryffindor, Harrion Karstark and Diane Gryffindor, Domeric Bolton and Sansa Stark were announced. As expected Oberyn arrived a month later and finalized the betrothal between his nephew and Arya Stark.

* * *

Thank you all for reading, reviewing and sending me messages. It is great to know you still with the story despite many shortcomings.


	17. Chapter 17 - Waiting for the king to die

**Chapter 17**

 **Sansa Stark**

I was born into a new kingdom; that's what our scholar used to say. In our lessons he taught us how a chance encounter between my late Uncle Brandon and Lord Gryffindor changed the North completely. The changes flowed from London to all corners of the North. Both the nobles and smallfolk have better lives now.

The university was an idea that was greeted with distrust at best initially but now it's rare for a noble house not to send their children to Oxford. I have to admit I am envious of my brothers who can travel and study at other universities with the exchange program.

My time at Oxford was very enjoyable. I met and made friends with many girls from many families. We had the option of selecting some of the subjects we can study. We had mandatory classes such as history, geography, languages, numbers and bookkeeping. We could add some fun subjects such as music, cookery, healing and even some weapon and self-defense. I joined the self-defense class and can wield daggers reasonably well.

My mother was always fighting with father about how we are being raised. She wanted us to be taught by the maester and a septa. But father refused and we were taught by a scholar from Oxford. She wanted us to learn about the Seven for which father agreed on the condition that we are free to choose which gods to follow. When I was young the stories of the seven and the scripture fascinated me. However I came to understand the old gods and their power as it is evident in our daily life. How can you ignore the presence of Old Gods in front of a heart tree. Regardless how much my mother tried, no one of us followed the Seven.

When I heard that I was to be married to the Bolton heir, I was not delighted. I have met him and spoken to him briefly. He is a handsome man and skilled enough to become a student of Lord Harold who had not taken anyone else personally as his student. Despite all what Domeric accomplished, Bolton name doesn't have a good reputation.

Lord Harold visited Winterfell and assured me that Domeric is a fine young man and will be a fine and honorable husband. He will be visiting for few weeks so that we can get to know each other. My father assured that I will not be getting married for at least a year.

 **Bran Stark**

Sansa told me that I used to wake up screaming many nights when I was small. My father sent for Lord Lucas as he is the Chief Healer of London. He tried many types of medicine but none of them worked. Then Lord Harold gave me a bracelet blessed by the old gods and carved many runes in my room and bed. Since then I never had any bad dream. In fact, I did not have any dreams at all.

Two years ago, just after I turned 8 name days, I have become a lord of my own. It all started when Skagosi men started attacking ships and shores of the mainland. Technically Skagos is a part of the North but they were usually left alone. One thing led to another and at the end, it ended with an invasion of the Island.

They were truly savages. More than 80% of Skagosi died in battle. Most of the women fought to death as well. My father decided to re-populate the island. 1000 men, women and children were chosen to move to Skagos. Last year more than 500 from mountain clans of the Vale moved there as well. The island didn't have many structures, to begin with. Skagosi usually lived in caves. Uros Umber was made the Steward until I am ready. The scholar for the island was a man from House Tallhart.

The island is mountainous with a dangerous shore. You need to be a skilled sailor and should know the safe passages to travel safely. A few months ago, Robb traveled to the island with me and some men from Gryffindor clan. They did some kind of a ritual with Weirwood trees and Old Gods. I was told that I will learn from them when I am old enough. I can't wait to start my studies at Oxford next year.

Robb assured me that the Gods will bless the island and soon the climate will be pleasant enough and that the land will become arable over the next 4-5 years. Then a slow and steady migration to the island started. The biggest surprise was the return of the company of the Rose.

They are a sell Sword Company started by men and women who chose to exile themselves than bending the knee to Aegon Targaryen. For some reason they decided to return and settle in Skagos. My father and the Lords of the North were more than happy to welcome them. Many noble houses welcomed decedents of their ancestors. They swore their allegiance to my father and me. They increased the population of the island by 5000 as the whole families moved in. The leader of the Company, Moses Ryswell was made the Master at Arms for the Island.

Scholar Tallhart with input from Robb designed a small Keep for me. It is designed in a way that it can be extended in the future. As there is no hurry, it will be completed in 2-3 years.

Everything was going perfect until Ser Wylis Manderly came for a visit.

 **Robb Stark**

I was home at Winterfell on a short break from my studies. I came to attend the Lord's council that changed a lot of things for my family. Lord Harold told me beforehand what he is planning to propose and asked if I am agreeable for a marriage between myself and his daughter. I barely concealed the glee as I nod in my acceptance.

I had a crush on Luna for years but did not even try to show that to her because of the fear of Lord Harold. Now I am learning the Magical Arts, I know how dangerous he is. Luna doesn't look like his father at all. She is a splitting image of her late mother with pale Skin, blonde hair and sky blue eyes. She is a beautiful girl that often visits my dreams.

Gryffindor women are unlike your average noble lady. They are fierce and strong. I have seen her with the staff and I am not confident that I can beat her in a staff combat. I am sure she is not going to be a typical lady who believed the ultimate job of a women is to let her husband fuck her and spit out children. I can imagine how well my mother and she is going to get along !

Despite all, I am very happy that I am marrying her. I had the chance to have a talk with her after the announcement of the betrothal. She assured me the proposal came after she gave her consent and she is quite happy to be married to me. Then she threatened that if I ever break my marriage Vow, she will cut my balls and wear them as earrings.

I am not sure why the threat made her more attractive. I must be a closet masochist.

The usual day to day life was disturbed by the arrival of Ser Wylis, the heir of White Harbor. My father requested my presence for the discussion.

Ser Wylis requested that we accept the hand of his daughter for Bran. We were little surprised as Bran is still just 10 years old.

"What do you think Robb ?" My father asked once Ser Wylis retired for the night.

"It's a little too early to arrange a marriage for Bran father."

"I agree. But it's not a bad proposal. They are powerful and rich and have been loyal to us for thousand years and they have married Starks few times."

"Make it unofficial then. I am sure there will be other proposals despite the age as all of us except for Rickon and Bran is betrothed. If we have the unofficial arrangement, it is easy to reject other proposals."

"Very well. Now how are we going to explain and convince Bran ?"

The only thing I could do was sighing.

 **Luna Gryffindor**

As far as suitors go, Robb Stark was one of the finest. He is a full magical with an active magical core which means the chance of our children born as passive magicals is almost null. As a stark, he is as honorable as his father. On top of that he is a fine swordsman and a handsome man. The dual marriages of me and Diane will be held at London in 2 months' time. That was also an excuse for all the clones in Westeros to meet and discuss the future of the Westeros.

 **A week before the Weddings – Harold Gryffindor**

The double wedding was the largest gathering of the Gryffindor clan so far. And the clashes of ideas to be expected. The most important and widely discussed topic was the future of Westeros.

"The whoremonger will die soon enough. If not his wife will put him out of his misery very soon I am sure." Charles declared.

"I can't deny that. As disgusting as he is, he is the only thing that holds the seven kingdoms together. Him and the Arryn. And Arryn is not getting any younger either." I added my thoughts.

"His son is a Royal piece of shit. Tywin Lannister will be the real king when Jeffery becomes the king." Cedric said.

"What do you think the North will do ?" I asked Chris.

"We will most likely declare independence. No one talks about it in open but that is the general feeling. Lord Stark is aware of it. As reluctant as he is, I am certain he will agree when the time comes."

"I will do the same." I said after few moments silence. "When the time is right, I will declare the independence of the Iron Islands."

"Lannisters will not let it go easily." Rowena said.

"There is nothing they can really do." I replied.

"Tully will join the Lannisters just because he hates us." Rowena said. "Then we will be in trouble."

"We are not going to let you defend yourself on your own Rowena. Do not worry." Chris told her.

"How many men we can gather if needed ?" I asked. "Iron Island can call 10,000 foot soldiers and Cavalry."

"London can call 6000." Chris answered.

"Longbridge and SeaGuard can call 8,000."

Marsh Port, Kraken Port and Plymouth can call 1500 each I was told. Madrid and Lisbon can call 4000 together. The Griffin Island can send another 1000.

"That means we can collectively call 30-35,000." I said.

"Alright this is what we will do. We will create 6 battle groups and 6 fleets. We will prepare one each for Reach, StormLands, Vale, Westerlands, Croundlands and Riverlands. Let's be ready for anything."

So we made plans. The future is uncertain but we were sure that we will survive.

"What about Aegon ?" Will he want to grab the opportunity and return ? Liam asked.

"I don't know for sure. According to Oberyn, he is not really interested in getting out of his comfortable life in Volantis. What about Jon?" i asked Orion.

"He is not going to fight for it. He does not want anyone to know who his real father is." Orian answered.

"Very well lets wait and see how things play out. How are the preparations for the guest from the far north?"

Couple of years ago we learned that the Others are coming back. The winter is truly coming. We started making preparations.

"We have a dragon glass million arrows and 50,000 swords prepared. We achieved the target just few days ago." Matt the person in charge of the preparations told us.

"That's good."

We experimented and found out that dragon glass can affect white walkers greatly. I have spent few years learning necromancy as I am the master of the death. I was able to develop a rune cluster that can severe the connection between the animated corpse and the necromancer. The runes will be carved on the swords and the arrow heads.

"What about the free folks ?" Lily Asked.

Free folks are another problem we are trying to get rid of. We have been evacuating some tribes who can be reasoned with. They are moved to another island we have discovered. The island was named Sanctum, located south of Occasus and it is twice the size of Griffin Island. Over the years we have moved close to 25,000 free folks. We are planning to talk to the so called king beyond the wall to evacuate majority of the remaining free folks as well. This way we will have fewer white walkers to deal with.

"Initial talks with Mance Raider was successful. A team of representatives were taken to Sanctum to check it out."

"Let's hope all goes well."

….

The double wedding was as grand as it can be. It is as lavish as any southern wedding. Nobles from all over the westeros came including Jon Arryn which surprised almost everyone except me and few others.

"You have come a long way Harold." Lord Arryn commented as he was relaxing after one of the pre-wedding feasts. We were at one of the balconies of Moat Cailin overlooking the vast paddy fields.

"Indeed I have Lord Hand. It is all thanks to the blessings of the Old Gods."

"I am not sure if the Gods have anything to do with it." He comented.

"I wasn't really expecting You to attend the wedding Lord Hand. It is a long way to travel for."

"I admit I have another reason for this visit."

"Indeed ?"

"I know you are not much into the whole diplomacy, politics and the game of thrones Harold so I will come to the point."

"That will be appreciated, my Lord."

"The crown is in huge debt to the Iron bank, the lannisters, Tyrells and even to some trade guilds."

"How much in debt?"

"6 million dragons. Half of it to the Iron Bank and they are asking us to pay half of it right now and the rest of it within a year."

"That's a lot of gold."

"It is. I do not want to ask from Lannisters or Tyrells."

"and you are asking me." I sad internally doing a victory dance.

"Regardless of the problems you had with Robert in the past, I know you will not want the Lannisters to gain more power at the capital."

"That is true. So you are asking me to cover the Iron Bank debt ?" I asked to clarify.

"Yes."

"3 million is a lot of gold as we have expanded and made a lot of investments in Essos. I can however get the Iron Bank to transfer the loan to me. But that will not come free Lord hand."

"I knew that much. What is your demand ?"

"Harrenhall."

"That's a lot to ask for what you are offering."

"True. That's why I am offering to pay the Tyrell and the trade guilds Loan as well. This is my final offer Lord Arryn. Harenhall has a lot of land but the castle is useless. I have to build a complete new castle."

"Very well. I will discuss this with Robert and will let you know the result."

What he didn't know was that it was I who planned the whole thing. The iron bank was ok to demand the loan to be paid for a bribe of one million dragons. Lady Whent of Harrenhall was happy to run away with her boytoy to Bravos with the generous amount of gold I gave her leaving the ghost infected castle.

I am sure soon I will own the vast holdings of Harrenhall. I am already planning a large castle on the shore of the god's eye.

As for the Tywin Lannister, he will not be able to loan any money to anyone anytime soon as he just paid 2 million dragons to obtain their Valyrian steel sword 'Brightroar.'


End file.
